Asia and Oceania

Papua New Guinea
Last reviewed: 06 August 2009

Country information

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Geography

Papua New Guinea (PNG) occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, as well as numerous smaller islands and atolls. The country's geography is extremely diverse with a spine of rugged mountains running the length of the island forming the Highlands, (1200 - 2800m). The coastal plains feature spectacular coral reefs and many hundreds of smaller islands with the most notable being New Britain, New Ireland and Bougainville. Its neighbours are Indonesia to the west, Australia to the south, the Solomon Islands to the east and the U.S. territory of Guam to the north. The land area is approximately 463,000km² with only 27% of the total landmass inhabited. Large variations in landform cause an extremely diverse range of natural environments. There are 24 dormant and 16 active volcanoes and eruptions are frequent. A number of major rivers drain the mainland, including the Sepik River in the north and the Fly River in the South. These rivers have associated swamps and seasonally inundated floodplains that cover large areas. Almost 50% of the total land area is mountainous and 20% is seasonally or permanently flooded.