Papua New Guinea Geography - 2024

Location

Oceania, group of islands including the eastern half of the island of New Guinea between the Coral Sea and the South Pacific Ocean, east of Indonesia

Geographic coordinates

6 00 S, 147 00 E

Map references

Oceania

Area

total: 462,840 sq km

land: 452,860 sq km

water: 9,980 sq km

Area - comparative

slightly larger than California

Area comparison map:

Land boundaries

total: 824 km

border countries (1): Indonesia 824 km

Coastline

5,152 km

Maritime claims

territorial sea: 12 nm

continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation

exclusive fishing zone: 200 nm

measured from claimed archipelagic baselines

Climate

tropical; northwest monsoon (December to March), southeast monsoon (May to October); slight seasonal temperature variation

Terrain

mostly mountains with coastal lowlands and rolling foothills

Elevation

highest point: Mount Wilhelm 4,509 m

lowest point: Pacific Ocean 0 m

mean elevation: 667 m

Natural resources

gold, copper, silver, natural gas, timber, oil, fisheries

Land use

agricultural land: 2.6% (2018 est.)

arable land: 0.7% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 1.5% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 0.4% (2018 est.)

forest: 63.1% (2018 est.)

other: 34.3% (2018 est.)

Irrigated land

0 sq km (2022)

Major rivers (by length in km)

Sepik river source and mouth (shared with Indonesia) - 1,126 km; Fly river source and mouth (shared with Indonesia) - 1,050 km

Population distribution

population concentrated in the highlands and eastern coastal areas on the island of New Guinea; predominantly a rural distribution with only about one-fifth of the population residing in urban areas

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 - note

note 1: shares island of New Guinea with Indonesia; generally east-west trending highlands break up New Guinea into diverse ecoregions; one of world's largest swamps along southwest coast

note 2: two major food crops apparently developed on the island of New Guinea: bananas and sugarcane

note 3: Papua New Guinea is one of the countries along the Ring of Fire, a belt of active volcanoes and earthquake epicenters bordering the Pacific Ocean; up to 90% of the world's earthquakes and some 75% of the world's volcanoes occur within the Ring of Fire