Country Name: Papua New Guinea (Independent State of Papua New Guinea)

Capital: Port Moresby

Government Type: parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy; a Commonwealth realm

Background: Papua New Guinea (PNG) was first settled between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago. PNG’s harsh geography consisting of mountains, jungles, and numerous river valleys, kept many of the arriving groups isolated, giving rise to PNG’s significant ethnic and linguistic diversity. Agriculture was independently developed by some of these groups. Around 500 B.C., Austronesian voyagers settled along the coast. Spanish and Portuguese explorers periodically visited the island starting in the 1500s, but none made it into the country’s interior. American and British whaling ships frequented the islands off the coast of New Guinea in the mid-1800s. In 1884, Germany declared a protectorate - and eventually a colony - over the northern part of what would become PNG and named it German New Guinea; days later the UK followed suit on the southern part and nearby islands and called it Papua. Most of their focus was on the coastal regions, leaving the highlands largely unexplored.

The UK put its colony under Australian administration in 1902 and formalized the act in 1906. At the outbreak of World War I, Australia occupied German New Guinea and continued to rule it after the war as a League of Nations Mandate. The discovery of gold along the Bulolo River in the 1920s led prospectors to venture into the highlands, where they found about 1 million people living in isolated communities. Japan invaded New Guinea in 1941 and reached Papua the following year. Allied victories during the New Guinea campaign pushed out the Japanese, and after the end of the war, Australia combined the two territories into one administration. Sir Michael Somare won elections in 1972 on the promise of achieving independence, which was realized in 1975.

Continent: Oceania

Population: 9,819,350 (2023 est.)

Ethnic Groups: Melanesian, Papuan, Negrito, Micronesian, Polynesian

Languages: Tok Pisin (official), English (official), Hiri Motu (official), some 839 living indigenous languages are spoken (about 12% of the world's total); many languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers

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.)

Economic Overview: lower middle-income Pacific island economy; primarily informal agrarian sector; natural resource-rich; key liquified natural gas exporter; growing young workforce; slow post-pandemic recovery; increasingly impoverished citizenry; sustainable inflation

Currency: Papua New Guinean Kina (PGK)

Reserves of Foreign Exchange & Gold: $3.983 billion (2022 est.) note: holdings of gold (year-end prices)/foreign exchange/special drawing rights in current dollars

Real GDP (Purchasing Power Parity): $38.065 billion (2022 est.) note: data in 2017 dollars

Real GDP Growth Rate: 5.17% (2022 est.) note: annual GDP % growth based on constant local currency

Real GDP per Capita: $3,800 (2022 est.) note: data in 2017 dollars

Exports: 

• $11.625 billion (2021 est.) note: balance of payments - exports of goods and services in current dollars

• Comparison Ranking: 106

Export Commodities: natural gas, gold, copper, palm oil, nickel, crude petroleum, lumber, refined petroleum, tuna, coffee (2021)

Export Partners: Japan 25%, China 25%, Australia 16%, Taiwan 6%, South Korea 6% (2021)

Imports: 

• $6.303 billion (2021 est.) note: balance of payments - imports of goods and services in current dollars

• Comparison Ranking: 137

Import Commodities: refined petroleum, rice, delivery trucks, excavation machinery, motor vehicle parts (2021)

Import Partners: Australia 27%, China 25%, Singapore 13%, Malaysia 8%, Indonesia 5% (2021)

Natural Resources: gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, fisheries

Agricultural Products: oil palm fruit, bananas, coconuts, fruit, sweet potatoes, game meat, yams, roots/tubers nes, vegetables, taro

Industries: oil and gas; mining (gold, copper, and nickel); palm oil processing; plywood and wood chip production; copra crushing; construction; tourism; fishing; livestock (pork, poultry, cattle) and dairy farming; spice products (turmeric, vanilla, ginger, cardamom, chili, pepper, citronella, and nutmeg)

Industrial Production Growth Rate: 

• 6.61% (2022 est.) note: annual % change in industrial value added based on constant local currency

• Comparison Ranking: 45

Labor Force: 3.167 million (2022 est.)

Unemployment Rate: 2.78% (2022 est.) note: % of labor force seeking employment

Natural Hazards: active volcanism; the country is subject to 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"

Geography:

• Total: 462,840 sq km

• Land: 452,860 sq km

• Water: 9,980 sq km

(Country Summary, The World Factbook, CIA.gov)

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