Papua New Guinea

In brief

Papua New Guinea is a country in Melanesia (Oceania). Its capital is Port Moresby. With 10.8 million inhabitants in 2025, it ranks 91st in the world by population, out of the 195 countries recognised by the UN. Its area is 462,840 km². It shares land borders with Indonesia.

GDP per capita stands at $3,020 (2025), 144th in the world. Life expectancy at birth is 66.3 years (2024). 16% of the population lives in cities.

History of Papua New Guinea

Inhabited for more than 40,000 years, New Guinea is one of the places where farming arose independently, as shown by the Kuk site, several thousand years old. In the 19th century the north became German and the south British, before the whole passed to Australia. The Kokoda Track saw fierce fighting in 1942. The country became independent on 16 September 1975. In 2019 the island of Bougainville voted overwhelmingly for independence in a non-binding referendum.

Geography of Papua New Guinea

The country covers the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and hundreds of islands. The central highlands peak at Mount Wilhelm (4,509 m); rainforest, great rivers such as the Sepik and volcanoes cover the rest. With more than 800 languages, it is the most linguistically diverse country in the world.

Map of Papua New Guinea

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Flag of Papua New Guinea

The flag of Papua New Guinea is red, yellow and black. Its official proportions are 3:4 (height to width).

• Black48%
• Red45%
• Yellow6%
• White2%

Share of the flag’s surface taken by each colour.

What the flag stands for

Divided diagonally: at the top, on red, a golden bird-of-paradise; at the bottom, on black, the Southern Cross. It was designed in 1971 by a 15-year-old schoolgirl, Susan Karike.

Sources: Wikipedia, articles “Papua New Guinea” and “Flag of Papua New Guinea”.

See also: flags with a star.

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Fact file

Economy and society