Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-hfldf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-30T12:21:46.263Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

LONGEVITY IN NORTH KOREA AND SOUTH KOREA: PREVALENCE OF CENTENARIANS IN ONE THE POOREST AND ONE OF THE RICHEST NATIONS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2017

Daniel Schwekendiek
Daniel Schwekendiek*
Affiliation:
Academy of East Asian Studies, Sungkyunkwan University, Seoul, South Korea and Unit for Biocultural Variation and Obesity, University of Oxford, UK
*
1Email: danjosch@skku.edu
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Over recent decades, economic living conditions have dramatically improved in South Korea, which now represents one of the most developed nations. At the same time, its twin in the North remains one of the poorest countries on earth. Thus, the Korean peninsula represents a unique historical experiment that allows for study of the effects of environment on human development under a variety of ceteris paribus cultural, genetic and climatic conditions. Previous studies comparing the biosocial performances of the two Koreas have focused on indicators such as weight, height, mid-upper arm circumference and age at menarche. The purpose of the present study was to investigate longevity based on the number of centenarians living in the two Koreas by drawing on censuses implemented around 1925 and 2010. The study found that North Korea had some 0.7 centenarians per one million persons in 1925, and this rate moderately improved to 2.7 around 2010. Conversely, rates skyrocketed in South Korea from 2.7 in 1925 to 38.2 around 2010. This suggests that the rate of centenarians in North Korea around 2010 corresponds to that of South Korea in 1925, suggesting a chronological lag in delayed human development of some 85 years. The prevalence of centenarians is fourteen times higher in contemporary South Korea compared with the North – broadly confirming previous biosocial studies on the two Koreas and two Germanies reporting improved human development in market-oriented systems compared with socialist ones.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , March 2018 , pp. 244 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baten, J. (ed.) (2016) A History of the Global Economy: 1500 to the Present. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Baten, J. & Blum, M. (2012) Growing tall but unqueal: new findings and new background evidence on anthropometric welfare in 156 countries, 1810–1989. Economic History of Developing Regions 27, S66–S88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bolt, J. & Van Zanden, J. L. (2013) The First Update of the Maddison Project; Re-Estimating Growth Before 1820. Maddison Project Working Paper No. 4.Google Scholar
Central Bureau of Statistics (2009) DPR Korea: 2008 Population Census. Central Bureau of Statistics, Pyongyang.Google Scholar
Cho, G. J., Park, H. T., Shin, J. H., Hur, J. Y., Kim, Y. T., Kim, S. H. et al. (2010) Age at menarche in a Korean population: secular trends and influencing factors. European Journal of Pediatrics 169, 89–94.Google Scholar
Eberstadt, N. & Banister, J. (1992) The Population of North Korea. Institute of East Asian Studies, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Floud, R., Fogel, R. W., Harris, B. & Hong, S. C. (2011) The Changing Body: Health, Nutrition, and Human Development in the Western World since 1700. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. (1983) Secular changes in American and British stature and nutrition. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 14(2), 445–481.Google Scholar
Fogel, R. (2004) The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Jeune, B. (1995) The search for the first centenarians. In Jeune, B. Jeune, B. & Vaupel, J. (eds) Exceptional Longevity: From Prehistory to the Present. Odense University Press, Odense, pp. 11–24.Google Scholar
Jeune, B. & Vaupel, J. (eds) (1995) Exceptional Longevity: From Prehistory to the Present. Odense University Press, Odense.Google Scholar
Jeune, B. & Vaupel, J. (eds) (1999) Validation of Exceptional Longevity. Odense University Press, Odense.Google Scholar
Kim, M-K. (2004) Population census and other data sources. In Kim, D. & Kim, C. (eds) The Population of Korea. Korea National Statistical Office, Daejeon. pp.. 33–64.Google Scholar
Koepke, N. & Baten, J. (2005) The biological standard of living in Europe during the last two millennia. European Review of Economic History 9(1), 61–95.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (ed.) (1994) Stature, Living Standards, and Economic Development. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. (1995) The Biological Standard of Living on Three Continents: Further Explorations in Anthropometric History. Westview Press, Boulder, San Francisco, Oxford.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. & Baten, J. (eds) (1998) The Biological Standard of Living in Comparative Perspective. Steiner, Stuttgart.Google Scholar
Komlos, J. & Kriwy, P. (2003) The biological standard of living in the two Germanies. German Economic Review 4(4), 459–473.Google Scholar
KOSIS (2016) Census Data. Korean Statistical Information Service. URL: http://kosis.kr (accessed 2nd January 2016).Google Scholar
Ku, S-Y., Kang, J. W., Kim, H., Kim, Y. D., Jee, B. C., Suh, C. S. et al. (2006) Age at menarche and its influencing factors in North Korean female refugees. Human Reproduction 21(3), 833–836.Google Scholar
Lewis, J. B., Jun, S. H. & Schwekendiek, D. (2013) Toward an anthropometric history of Chosŏn Dynasty Korea, sixteenth to eighteenth century. Journal of the Historical Society 13(3), 239–270.Google Scholar
Maddison, A. (2001) The World Economy. A Millennial Perspective. OECD, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Maddison, A. (2003) The World Economy: Historical Statistics. OECD, Paris.Google Scholar
Pak, S., Schwekendiek, D. & Kim, H. (2011) Height and living standards in North Korea, 1930s to 1980s. Economic History Review 64(S1), 142–158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Park, S. C. (2012) Comprehensive approach for studying longevity in Korean centenarians. Asian Journal of Gerontology and Geriatrics 7, 33–38.Google Scholar
Pratt, K., Rutt, R. & Hoare, J. (1999) Korea: A Historical and Cultural Dictionary. Curzon, Durham.Google Scholar
Schwekendiek, D. (2009) Height and weight differences between South and North Korea. Journal of Biosocial Science 41(1), 51–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schwekendiek, D. (2013) Biosocial comparison of mid-upper arm circumference in the two Koreas. Journal of Biosocial Science 45(5), 615–625.Google ScholarPubMed
Schwekendiek, D. & Pak, S. (2009) Recent growth of children in the two Koreas: a meta-analysis. Economics and Human Biology 7(1), 109–112.Google Scholar
Spoorenberg, T. (2014) Fertility levels and trends in North Korea. Population-E 69(3), 433–446.Google Scholar
Steckel, R. (1995) Stature and the standard of living. Journal of Economic Literature 33, 1903–1940.Google Scholar