Papua New Guinea country brief Papua New Guinea has a population
of approximately 6.7 million. The Papua New Guinea mainland and
its six hundred islands have a total area of 463,000 square
kilometres. Most of the people are Melanesian, but some are
Micronesian or Polynesian. Papua New Guinea has over 800 known
languages. English, Tok Pisin (Pidgin), and Hiri Motu (the
lingua franca of the Papuan region) are the official languages.
The spectrum of Papua New Guinea society now ranges from
traditional village-based life, dependent on subsistence and
small cash-crop agriculture, to modern urban life in the main
cities of Port Moresby (capital), Lae, Madang, Wewak, Goroka, Mt
Hagen, and Rabaul. Some 85 per cent of the population directly
derive their livelihood from farming, and 15 per cent of the
population live in urban areas. Population growth is estimated
to be 2.8 per cent annually. The Road to Independence The Papua
and New Guinea Act, passed in Australia in 1949, confirmed the
administrative union of New Gu