Papua New Guinea - Geography

Here, let us take a look at the Geography of Papua New Guinea. note 1: shares island of New Guinea with Indonesia; highlands that trend from east to west break up New Guinea into diverse ecoregions; one of world's largest swamps lies along the southwest coast

note 2: Papua New Guinea is one of the countries along the Ring of Fire, which is a belt bordering the Pacific Ocean that contains about 75% of the world's volcanoes and up to 90% of the world's earthquakes. Mother's mean age at first birth is 21.9 years (2016/18) (Note: data represents median age a first birth among women 25-49), whereas, the Maternal mortality ratio is 189 deaths/100,000 live births (2023 est.)

Geographical data of Papua New Guinea
Location Oceania, group of islands including the eastern half of the island of New Guinea between the Coral Sea and the South Pacific Ocean, east of Indonesia
Geographic coordinates 6 00 S, 147 00 E
Map references Oceania
Tarrain mostly mountains with coastal lowlands and rolling foothills
Natural Resources gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, fisheries
Natural Hazards active volcanism; frequent and sometimes severe earthquakes; mud slides; tsunamis

volcanism: severe volcanic activity; Ulawun (2,334 m), one of Papua New Guinea's potentially most dangerous volcanoes, has been deemed a Decade Volcano by the International Association of Volcanology and Chemistry of the Earth's Interior, worthy of study due to its explosive history and close proximity to human populations; Rabaul (688 m) destroyed the city of Rabaul in 1937 and 1994; Lamington erupted in 1951, killing 3,000 people; Manam's 2004 eruption forced the island's abandonment; other historically active volcanoes include Bam, Bagana, Garbuna, Karkar, Langila, Lolobau, Long Island, Pago, St. Andrew Strait, Victory, and Waiowa; see note 2 under "Geography - note"
Irrigated Land 0 sq km (2022)
Major rivers (by length in km) Sepik river source and mouth (shared with Indonesia) - 1,126 km; Fly river source and mouth (shared with Indonesia) - 1,050 km
Major aquifers
Land Boundaries 824 km
Border Countries Indonesia 824 km
Coastline 5,152 km
Climate tropical; northwest monsoon (December to March), southeast monsoon (May to October); slight seasonal temperature variation
Area
Total Area
Land Area 452,860 sq km
Water Area 9,980 sq km
comparative Area slightly larger than California
Maritime Claims
Territorial sea 12 nm
Continental shelf 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
Exclusive fishing zone 200 nm
Elevations
Highest point Mount Wilhelm 4,509 m
Lowest point Pacific Ocean 0 m
Mean elevation 667 m
Land Use
Agricultural land 3.1% (2022 est.)
Agricultural land: arable land arable land: 0.7% (2022 est.)
Agricultural land: permanent crops permanent crops: 2% (2022 est.)
Agricultural land: permanent pasture permanent pasture: 0.4% (2022 est.)
Forest 79% (2022 est.)
Other 17.9% (2022 est.)
Population Distribution

Population concentrated in the highlands and eastern coastal areas on the island of New Guinea; predominantly a rural distribution with only about one fifth of the population residing in urban areas

People and Society

In Papua New Guinea, the different Ethnic groups are such that we have: Melanesian, Papuan, Negrito, Micronesian, Polynesian

Population
Pop growth rate 2.26% (2024 est.)
Birth rate 28.1 births/1,000 population (2024 est.)
Death rate 5.4 deaths/1,000 population (2024 est.)
Health expenditure
Physicians Density
Hospital bed Density 0.2 beds/1,000 population (2019 est.)
Total fertility rate 3.79 children born/woman (2024 est.)
Gross reproduction rate 1.85 (2024 est.)
Contraceptive prevalence rate
Est married women (ages 15-49) 65.5% (2023 est.)
Literacy
Education expenditures
Net Migration rate 0 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2024 est.)
Nationality Papua New Guinean | Papua New Guinean(s)
Languages Tok Pisin (official), English (official), Hiri Motu (official), some 839 living indigenous languages are spoken (about 12% of the world's total)
Religions Protestant 64.3% (Evangelical Lutheran 18.4%, Seventh Day Adventist 12.9%, Pentecostal 10.4%, United Church 10.3%, Evangelical Alliance 5.9%, Anglican 3.2%, Baptist 2.8%, Salvation Army 0.4%), Roman Catholic 26%, other Christian 5.3%, non-Christian 1.4%, unspecified 3.1% (2011 est.)
Age Structure
0-14 years 37.1% (male 1,902,272/female 1,825,471)
15-64 years 58.9% (male 2,991,479/female 2,923,410)
65 years and over 4% (2024 est.) (male 198,511/female 205,090)
Dependency Ratios
Total dependency ratio 69.8 (2024 est.)
Youth dependency ratio 63 (2024 est.)
Elderly dependency ratio 6.8 (2024 est.)
Potential support ratio 14.7 (2024 est.)
Median Age
Total 21.7 years (2024 est.)
Male 21.6 years
Female 21.9 years
Urbanization
Urban population 13.7% of total population (2023)
Rate of urbanization 2.91% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)
Major urban areas (Pop) 410,000 PORT MORESBY (capital) (2023).
Sex Ratio
At birth 1.05 male(s)/female
0-14 years 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years 1.02 male(s)/female
65 years and over 0.97 male(s)/female
Total population 1.03 male(s)/female (2024 est.)
Infant Motality
Total 32 deaths/1,000 live births (2024 est.)
Male 35.3 deaths/1,000 live births
Female 28.6 deaths/1,000 live births
Life Expectancy at birth
Total population 70.1 years (2024 est.)
Male 68.3 years
Female 71.9 years
Drinking Water Sources
Improved: urban urban: 86.9% of population (2022 est.)
Improved: rural rural: 44.5% of population (2022 est.)
Improved: total total: 50.2% of population (2022 est.)
Unimproved: urban urban: 13.1% of population (2022 est.)
Unimproved: rural rural: 55.5% of population (2022 est.)
Unimproved: total total: 49.8% of population (2022 est.)
Sanitation facility acess
Improved: urban urban: 57.8% of population (2022 est.)
Improved: rural rural: 18.2% of population (2022 est.)
Improved: total total: 23.6% of population (2022 est.)
Unimproved: urban urban: 42.2% of population (2022 est.)
Unimproved: rural rural: 81.8% of population (2022 est.)
Unimproved: total total: 76.4% of population (2022 est.)
Alcohol consumption per capita
Total 1.26 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
Beer 0.6 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
Wine 0.06 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
Spirits 0.6 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
Other alcohols 0 liters of pure alcohol (2019 est.)
Tobacco use
Total 38.9% (2025 est.)
Male 53.4% (2025 est.)
Female 23.8% (2025 est.)
Child marriage
Women married by age 15 8% (2018)
Women married by age 18 27.3% (2018)
Men married by age 18 3.7% (2018)
Demographic profile
All Important Facts about Papua New Guinea

Want to know more about Papua New Guinea? Check all different factbooks for Papua New Guinea below.

Papua New Guinea is found in Melanesia