180 countries ranked by safety, peace, freedom and LGBT+ equality
Visiting: Not RecommendedLGBT+ visiting: Not Recommended
North Korea can technically be visited, on a state-minded tour where every stop, photo and conversation is curated for you. That's the whole experience: monuments, the DMZ from the northern side, and minders. We're not going to dress it up — the risks of even small missteps are real and the system your money supports is the most repressive on earth. Give it a miss.
Intentional homicides per 100,000 people — lower is better.
Korea, North: 4.1
Ranked 80th in the world for the highest homicide rate.
An estimated 4.09 homicides per 100,000 people — a moderate rate by world standards. The 2021 estimate is the freshest figure that exists.
Higher than 53% of the 230 countries and territories measured.
How peaceful the country is — lower is better.
Korea, North: 2.9
Ranked 15th least peaceful country in the world.
More peaceful than 9% of the 163 countries ranked, scoring 2.911.
Holding steady — unchanged since 2024.
Personal and economic freedom — higher is better.
Korea, North: 2.5
Ranked 1st least free country in the world.
The Human Freedom Index needs economic data North Korea doesn't publish, so this 2.48 is our own estimate — built with the index's published method: the same 12 categories of personal and economic freedom, equally weighted.
Day-to-day life (speech, movement, religion) scores 3.00; doing business and owning property, 1.58. Scored from the index's own underlying sources — V-Dem, Freedom House, UNODC, CPJ and World Bank data. That lands below Syria, the lowest-scoring country the official index measures.
LGBT+ equality in law and daily life — higher is better.
Korea, North: 3.7
Ranked 86th least equal in the world for LGBT+ people.
Ranks behind 52% of the 197 countries scored for LGBT+ equality — 37 out of 100.
The law scores 37 out of 100; no public-opinion data is available.