Papua New Guinea: population, cities
Population
According to Countryaah website, Papua New Guinea has a population of around 5.5 million.
Compare
Federal Republic of Germany (82.53 million),
Austria (8.1 million),
USA (281.42 million),
PR China (1.29 billion),
Ethnic groups
Melanesians and Papuans live in Papua New Guinea.
Religions
95.5% of the population are Christians. Thereof
- 28.3% Catholic
- 23.2% Evangelical
- 12.7% United
- 8.8% Evangelical Alliance
- 8.1% Seventh-Day Adventists
- 7.1% Pentecostals
- 3.7% Anglican
- 4.2%
Languages
For the most part Melanesian pidgin, English is spoken by 1-2% of the population. Hiri Motu, a pidgin language, is the country’s third official language. Pidgin is a contact language whose origin mostly goes back to the time of co-dialization.
Capital, other cities
The capital of Papua New Guinea is Port Moresby, with a population of about 293,000. According to Abbreviation Finder, PNG stands for Papua New Guinea in English. Click to see other meanings of this 3-letter acronym.
Other cities are
Lae, with around 80,700 residents; Madang, with around 27,060 residents; Wewak, with around 23,200 residents; Goroka, with around 17,860 residents and Mount Hagen, with around 17,400 residents
Compare
New York (8 million) in the USA,
Sao Paulo (> 17 million) in Brazil,
Berlin (3.4 million) in Germany,
Papua New Guinea: Geography and Map
Papua New Guinea covers a total area of 462,840 km². Check topmbadirectory for politics, flags, famous people, animals and plants of Papua New Guinea.
Thereof:
- BeachesAround 0.5% of the country are sandy beaches
- ForestThe country is covered by around 70% forest, making it one of the largest rainforests in the world.
- Mangrove forestAround 1.5% consist of mangroves.
- LowlandsAbout 15% of the country is lowlands.
- Marshes11% of the land is marshes.
- MountainsAbout 45% of the country are covered by mountains up to 1,000 m in height, about 25% of the country are mountains between 1,000 m and 3,000 m in height and about 4% of the country are above 3,000 m.There are more than a hundred volcanoes. The following active volcanoes may be mentioned here as examples: the Tavurvur volcano in Rabaul, the Mt. Ulawun volcano, the Mt. Lkangila volcano, the Mt. Bagana volcano.
- ReefsThe country is surrounded by a reef area with an area of around 40,000 km2 with depths between 0 and 30 m.
Ownership
The land is 97% tribal.
Islands
The country consists of the main island New Guinea, half of which belongs to Papua New Guinea and one half to Indonesia, and about 1,400 other islands. The biggest are:
- New Guinea, with an area of 807,396 km2
- New Britain, with an area of 36,520 km2. It is the largest island that belongs in its entirety to the state of Papua New Guinea.
- Samarai, with an area of 0.25 km2, which is an important trading center in the country.
The islands are distributed among the individual provinces as follows:
- Central: 33 islands
- East New Britain: 46 islands
- East Sepik: 15 islands
- Gulf: 48 islands
- Madang: 45 islands
- Manus: 208 islands, with the archipelagos:
- Admirality: 57 islands
- Ninigo: 46 islands
- Hermit: 16 islands
- Milne Bay: 438 islands, with the island groups:
- D ‘Entrecasteaux: 49 islands
- Calvados: 33 islands
- Trobiands: 28 islands
- Conflict: 20 islands
- Lusancay: 16 islands
- Morobe: 57 islands
- National Capital: 8 islands
- New Ireleand: 149 islands, with the island groups:
- Mussau-emirau: 16 islands
- Tanga: 11 islands
- North Solomons: 168 islands, with the island groups:
- Nukumanu: 33 islands
- Tauu: 14 islands
- Nuguria: 12 islands
- Oro: 8 islands
- Sandaun, West Sepik: 6 islands
- West New Britain: 125 islands, with the island groups:
- Arawe: 10 islands
- Western: 52 islands
National borders
Papua New Guinea has a land border with Indonesia of 820 km.
Neighboring states are:
- Federated States of Micronesia in the north
- Nauru and the Solomon Islands (Solomon Islands) to the east
- Australia in the south
Coastline
Papua New Guinea has a coastline of around 5,150 km.
Tidal range in Port Moresby
In Port Moresby the mean tidal range is around 2.7 m. In Seeadler Harbor only 1.3 m and in Dreger Harbor only 1.1 m. In the Torres Strait, however, the tidal range is 6 m.
Compare
The world’s highest tidal range can be found in the Bay of Fundy in Canada, where it is up to 16 meters, and at spring tide even over 20 meters. The Bay of Fundy is located on the Atlantic between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which is called Nova Scotia in German and whose capital is Halifax.
On the German North Sea coast it varies between one and three meters. In the western Baltic Sea, on the other hand, the tidal range is only 0.3 meters, while it is barely noticeable in the eastern Baltic Sea.
Longitude and latitude
Papua New Guinea extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):
Δφ = from the equator 0 ° to around 15 ° south latitude Δλ = from around 141 ° to 160 ° east longitude |
You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.
Legal time
For Papua New Guinea, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time without summer time. A minus sign means that it is earlier there, a plus sign that it is later than CET:
Δt (CET) = + 9 h |
Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.
The highest point of the sun in Port Moresby
Port Moresby,
the capital of the country, is located at a southern latitude of φ = 09 ° 30 ‘, i.e. in the tropics.
If the declination of the sun has the value 09 ° 30 ‘S and the image point of the sun is thus exactly above the city, the sun is vertically above the city. This happens exactly twice a year, roughly 37 days before March 21st and 37 days after September 21st.
Attention
If the image point of the sun and thus the declination δ is north of the latitude of Port Moresby, the sun is not in the south at noon, as in our latitudes, but in the north. In this case, the sun moves from east to north to west, where, like us, it sets.
Mountains
Mt. Wilhelm
The highest mountain in the country is Mt. Wilhelm, with a height of 4,509 m. The mountain is named after a son of Otto von Bismarck.
Other high mountains are:
- Mount Giluwe, a 4,367 m high volcano.
- Iguntam, with an altitude of 4,146 m. It is in the Bismarck Mountains.
- Sarawaket, located at an altitude of 4,121 m in the Sarawaket Mountains in the province of Morobe.
Lowest point in the sea
Solomon Sea
The lowest point is in the Solomon Sea at 8,581 m depth.
Rivers
River Fly
The longest river in the country is the River Fly, with a length of around 1,200 km, the tides of the sea can be felt up to 240 km upstream.
Other rivers in the country are:
Markham River, Sepik
The Markham River, with a length of around 170 km and the Sepik, with a length of around 1,100 km, the water level of which is around 3.5 m above normal water level in the rainy season. It floods an approximately 70 km wide strip with an area of 7,800 km².
Kirori River
The Kirori River drains the area with the highest rainfall – the southern highlands.
Lakes
Murray Lake
Papua New Guinea comprises approximately 5,300 smaller and larger lakes. The largest lake is Murray Lake, with an area of about 647 km².
Other larger lakes are:
Chambri See
The Chambri See covers an area of around 216 km²
Wisdom See
The Wisdom See covers an area of around 85 km²
Chanda-Szange
The Chanda-Szange covers an area of around 78 km².
caves
Papua New Guinea has some of the largest caves in the world. This includes:
- Benua CaveThe cave is located in the province of Bourgainville on the Keriaka plateau and has a volume of 4.5 million m 3.
- Mama Kanda CaveThe cave is located in the southern highlands and has a path system of up to 54.8 km.
- Muruk CaveThe cave is located in New East Britain.
- Caves of Mt. SarawaketThe caves are about 3,800 m high in Morobe and are among the highest known caves in the world
The Pacific
Papua New Guinea borders the Pacific Ocean with a total coastline of 5,150 km – to be more precise, Papua New Guinea is located in the South Pacific, the so-called South Pacific. This region of the Pacific Ocean includes the Polynesian Islands as well as parts of Melanesia and Micronesia.