Country · Oceania
Papua New Guinea
Independent State of Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea is a country in Melanesia. Its capital city is Port Moresby. About 8.6 million people live there, in an area of 462 840 square kilometres.
Picture credit: Jeremy Weate (CC BY 2.0) · sussexbirder (CC BY 2.0) · sussexbirder (CC BY 2.0) · gailhampshire (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Papua New Guinea?
Papua New Guinea lies in Melanesia, on the continent of Oceania.
It sits in the southern half of the world, roughly 668 km from the equator.
Its coastline is about 5 152 km long.
It shares a border with 1 country: Indonesia.
How big is Papua New Guinea?
Papua New Guinea covers 462 840 square kilometres.
That is about 11 times the size of Switzerland.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 54th largest.
Spread out evenly, that is roughly 18.6 people per square kilometre.
Who lives in Papua New Guinea?
About 8.6 million people live in Papua New Guinea.
That is the 98th biggest population in the world.
People here speak English, Hiri Motu and Tok Pisin.
They pay with the Papua New Guinean kina (K).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 63 years.
The land of Papua New Guinea
The land in Papua New Guinea sits on average 667 metres above sea level.
Its coast runs for about 5 152 km. Walking it end to end, at twenty kilometres a day, would take roughly 258 days.
It lies inside the tropics, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Papua New Guinea different?
Websites from here often end in .pg.
Papua New Guinea and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 1 live in Papua New Guinea.
It takes up about 0.35 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Oceania it is the 2nd largest of 14 countries, and the 2nd most populated.
That is emptier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Papua New Guinea and its neighbours
Indonesia, its largest neighbour, is about 4.1 times bigger.
Indonesia has more people: 267.7 million against 8.6 million.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 1 live wild in Papua New Guinea: Saltwater crocodile.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Papua New Guinea?
The capital of Papua New Guinea is Port Moresby. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Papua New Guinea?
About 8.6 million people live in Papua New Guinea, which makes it the 98th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Papua New Guinea?
Papua New Guinea borders Indonesia — 1 neighbour in total.
How big is Papua New Guinea?
Papua New Guinea covers 462 840 square kilometres, making it the 54th largest country in the world. That is about 11 times the size of Switzerland.
Which continent is Papua New Guinea in?
Papua New Guinea is in Oceania, in the part called Melanesia.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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