North Korea’s urban population increased this year compared with five years ago, with more than 60 percent of its total population now living in urban areas, though the figure is still one of the lowest in the region, a UN report showed.

According to the “World Cities Report” by UN-Habitat, the number of North Koreans living in urban areas, including the capital city of Pyongyang, came to 16.12 million as of midyear, accounting for 62.4 percent of the total population, up from 15.46 million in mid-2015.

The percentage is the second-lowest in East Asia, just above that of China, where 61.4 percent of the population resides in urban areas. South Korea’s urban population came to 81.4 percent of the total this year.

The global average this year was 56.2 percent. (Yonhap)