The North's total fertility rate, which is the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime, stood at 2.0 as of 2011, according to the report posted on the Web site of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
The North's infant mortality rate per 1,000 people stood at 26 last year, the Bangkok-based U.N. body said, in a sign of chronic malnutrition in the impoverished country.
Last year, the World Food Program said that a third of all North Korean children under five are chronically malnourished and that many more children are at risk of slipping into acute stages of malnutrition unless targeted assistance is sustained.
 |
The typical North Korean male born in 2011 can expect to live 66 years, while the average female is expected to live 72 years, according to the report.
Last year, the U.S. Census Bureau said North Korea's population was estimated to rise 10 percent by 2050 to 26.96 million.
Meanwhile, the U.N. report said South Korea's population is projected to increase to more than 50.33 million by 2030 from last year's 48.39 million.
entropy@yna.co.kr
(END)
