Papua New Guinea
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Where is Papua New Guinea located?
Papua New Guinea is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It occupies the eastern half of New Guinea, which is the worldâs second-largest island. Papua New Guinea also includes the Bismarck Archipelago, Bougainville, Buka (part of the Solomon Islands chain), small offshore islands, and atolls. Papua New Guinea stretches from just south of the Equator to the Torres Strait, which separates New Guinea from the northernmost extension of Australia, Cape York Peninsula. The nation's capital, Port Moresby, is in southeastern New Guinea on the Coral Sea.
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What is the capital city of Papua New Guinea?
The capital of Papua New Guinea is Port Moresby. Port Moresby is located on the eastern shore of Port Moresby Harbour, in the Gulf of Papua. When Papua New Guinea gained independence in 1975, Port Moresby became its capital. Manufacturing activities in Papua New Guinea are centered chiefly in Lae and Port Moresby. The Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery is located in one of Port Moresby's suburbs.
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What languages are spoken in Papua New Guinea?
Papua New Guinea has three official languages that reflect its colonial history: English, Hiri Motu, and Tok Pisin. English is the primary language used in government and commerce. Tok Pisin (also called Melanesian Pidgin or Neo-Melanesian) is a creole that combines grammatical elements of indigenous languages with some German and, increasingly, English. Hiri Motu is a simplified trade language.
In addition to the official languages, Papua New Guinea has more than 800 distinct indigenous languages from two language groups: Austronesian and Papuan. The majority of Papuan speakers live in the interior, while Austronesian speakers generally inhabit the coastal regions and offshore islands. Tok Pisin serves as a lingua franca among the numerous languages.
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What are some important physical features of Papua New Guinea?
Papua New Guinea is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, encompassing the eastern half of New Guinea and numerous other islands. The country's varied scenery reflects a recent geologic history shaped by the collision of the Australian and Pacific Plates.
A mountainous zone called the Highlands occupies the central part of the island, with elevations exceeding 13,000 feet (4,000 metres) and rising to 14,793 feet (4,509 metres) at Mount Wilhelm. The north coast drops sharply to the sea and consists of an unstable volcanic arc. The low-lying plains of southern New Guinea are geologically stable. The Fly-Digul shelf makes up the southern New Guinea plains.
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How do people in Papua New Guinea earn a living?
In Papua New Guinea, the majority of people are subsistence farmers, who grow yams, taro, sago, sweet potatoes, and bananas. Others are involved in raising pigs.
Many Papua New Guineans are also engaged in the production of cash crops like coffee, cacao, copra, palm oil, tea, and rubber. The country also exports timber, prawns, and skyjack tuna. Mining is also a source of income, with gold and copper as the principal exports. Natural gas and petroleum are also extracted.
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What are traditional customs or cultures found in Papua New Guinea?
Papua New Guinea has a rich variety of village cultures that have been retained despite contemporary economic and media influences. These cultures are expressed through wood carving, storytelling, song, dance, body decoration, and the shaping of landscapes.
Across Papua New Guinea, the kundu, an hourglass-shaped drum, is essential for song and dance, especially during major national celebrations. Self-decoration, particularly for dance and rituals, remains important, and traditional musical expression indicates local identity. Annual shows at Goroka and Mount Hagen attract many participants and spectators.
Daily life usually centers on the extended family, whose primary responsibilities are producing food and rearing children. Many activities are accompanied by rituals to ensure success and prosperity, while other major rituals, such as menarche ceremonies and initiations, are declining. When people migrate to urban areas, they carry their languages and customs, re-creating their existing social structures. Music and dance celebrations often mark important life-cycle events.
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News •
Papua New Guinea, island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It encompasses the eastern half of New Guinea, the worldâs second largest island (the western half is made up of the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua); the Bismarck Archipelago (New Britain, New Ireland, the Admiralty Islands, and several others); Bougainville and Buka (part of the Solomon Islands chain); and small offshore islands and atolls. The national capital, Port Moresby, is located in southeastern New Guinea on the Coral Sea.
The islands that constitute Papua New Guinea were settled over a period of 40,000 years by the mixture of peoples who are generally referred to as Melanesians. Since the country achieved independence in 1975, one of its principal challenges has been the difficulty of governing many hundreds of diverse, once-isolated local societies as a viable single nation.
- Head Of Government:
- Prime Minister: James Marape
- Capital:
- Port Moresby
- Population:
- (2026 est.) 15,001,000
- Head Of State:
- British Monarch: King Charles III, represented by Governor-General: Bob Dadae
- Form Of Government:
- constitutional monarchy with one legislative house (National Parliament [118])
- Official Languages:
- English; Hiri Motu; Tok Pisin
- Official Religion:
- none
- Official Names1:
- Independent State of Papua New Guinea
- Total Area (Sq Km):
- 461,937
- Total Area (Sq Mi):
- 178,355
- Monetary Unit:
- kina (K)
- Population Rank:
- (2026) 76
- Population Projection 2030:
- 10,419,000
- Density: Persons Per Sq Mi:
- (2026) 84.1
- Density: Persons Per Sq Km:
- (2026) 32.5
- Urban-Rural Population:
- Urban: (2024) 13.9%
- Rural: (2024) 86.1%
- Life Expectancy At Birth:
- Male: (2021) 64.2 years
- Female: (2021) 66.9 years
- Gni (U.S.$ â000,000):
- (2024) 30,660
- Gni Per Capita (U.S.$):
- (2024) 2,900
- Gau Hedinarai ai PapuaâMatamata Guinea (Hiri Motu); PapuaâNiugini (Tok Pisin).
Land
Papua New Guinea stretches from just south of the Equator to the Torres Strait, which separates New Guinea from Cape York Peninsula to the south, the northernmost extension of Australia. Mainland Papua New Guinea reaches its maximum north-south expanse of some 510 miles (820 km) along its western border with Indonesian Papua. Almost completely straight, the boundary is formed primarily by the line of longitude 141° E and curves only briefly westward to follow the Fly River for approximately 50 miles (80 km), starting just southwest of Kiunga.
From the western border the land tapersâwith a substantial indentation in the south coast formed by the Gulf of Papuaâto a fingerlike shape that points southeast toward the DâEntrecasteaux Islands and the Louisiade Archipelago. Off the mainland are a number of small islands and island groups scattered to the north and east and, farther northeast, Bougainville Island and the Bismarck Archipelago; the latter forms a crescent that arcs from the Admiralty Islands in the north to New Britain and Umboi Island, off the mainlandâs Huon Peninsula.
Relief
Papua New Guineaâs magnificent and varied scenery reflects a generally recent geologic history in which movements of the Earthâs crust resulted in the collision of the northward-moving Australian Plate with the westward-moving Pacific Plate. The low-lying plains of southern New Guinea are geologically part of the Australian Plate. Indeed, New Guinea was separated physically from Australia only some 8,000 years ago by the shallow flooding of the Torres Strait. The southern New Guinea plains, called the Fly-Digul shelf (named for the Fly and Digul rivers), are geologically stable.
Northward lies a belt of limestone country of varying width, most prominent in the Kikori RiverâLake Kutubu area. This forms an extraordinarily harsh environment of jumbled karst, dolines, rock towers, and seemingly endless ridges of jagged rock, all covered in virtually impenetrable lowland rainforest.
A mountainous zone called the Highlands, extending from the west to the southeast, occupies the central part of the island of New Guinea. In Papua New Guinea those mountains reach elevations in excess of 13,000 feet (4,000 metres), rising to the countryâs highest point of 14,793 feet (4,509 metres) at Mount Wilhelm in the Bismarck Range, part of the Central Range. The Highlands also feature enclosed upland basins whose floors are usually at 4,500 feet (1,370 metres) or higher. The basins contain lake deposits, formed in the recent geologic past by impeded drainage; soil wash from the surrounding mountains; and layers of volcanic ash, or tephra, deposited from nearby volcanoes, some of them recently active. Such basins, therefore, are usually very fertile.
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The north coast of the mainland, unlike the swampy south coast, drops sharply to the sea. The countryâs most northerly zone consists of a complex unstable volcanic arc in the Bismarck Sea stretching southeastward from the Schouten Islands (not to be confused with the Indonesian island group of the same name) to the Huon Peninsula and eastward through the island of New Britain. There the arc bifurcates, one arm sweeping northwestward through New Ireland and the Admiralty Islands, the other proceeding southeastward through Buka, Bougainville, and the country of Solomon Islands.
Drainage and soils
Steeply sloping mountain areas, exceptionally heavy rainfall, geologic instability in all except the most southerly areas, and the rapid growth of both population and commercial enterprise have combined to create some of the highest soil-erosion rates in the world, rivaling those of the Himalaya region. Consequently, while rivers are usually quite short in length, they carry extraordinarily high sediment loads, which have built up vast swampy plains and deltas, especially along the Sepik, Ramu, Fly, and Purari river systems. Once they leave the Highlands, often through spectacular gorges, such rivers meander slowly across the sediment plains. For example, some 510 miles (820 km) from its mouth, the elevation of the Fly River is a mere 60 feet (18 metres) above sea level, an average downhill gradient of only about 1.5 inches per mile (2.4 cm per km). The high deposition rates create major problems for any proposed human use of those rivers, such as transportation or hydroelectricity generation. The northern volcanic fringe contains some of the most fertile soils of the islands.