|
|
|
World > Oceania > Papua New Guinea
 |
Papua New Guinea |
Introduction:
|
The eastern half of the island of New Guinea - second largest in the world - was divided between Germany (north) and the UK (south) in 1885. The latter area was transferred to Australia in 1902, which occupied the northern portion during World War I and continued to administer the combined areas until independence in 1975. A nine-year secessionist revolt on the island of Bougainville ended in 1997 after claiming some 20,000 lives.
|
| Official name: |
Independent State of Papua New Guinea |
| Capital: |
name: Port Moresby
geographic coordinates: 9 30 S, 147 10 E
time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time) |
| Government type: |
constitutional parliamentary democracy |
| Population: |
5,795,887 (July 2007 est.) |
| Languages: |
Melanesian Pidgin serves as the lingua franca, English spoken by 1%-2%, Motu spoken in Papua region
note: 820 indigenous languages spoken (over one-tenth of the world's total) |
| Official Currency: |
Papua New Guinea Kina (PGK) |
| Currency code: |
PGK |
| Area: |
total: 462,840 sq km
land: 452,860 sq km
water: 9,980 sq km |
| Climate: |
tropical; northwest monsoon (December to March), southeast monsoon (May to October); slight seasonal temperature variation |
|
Map of Papua New Guinea
|
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
|
|
-
-
-
-
-
|
|
|
|
|
