Papua New Guinea (PNG) was first settled between 50,000 and 60,000 years ago. PNG’s harsh geography consisting of mountains, jungles, and numerous river valleys, kept many of the arriving groups isolated, giving rise to PNG’s incredible ethnic and linguistic diversity. Agriculture was independently developed by some of these groups. Around 500 B.C., Austronesian voyagers settled along the coast. Spanish and Portuguese explorers periodically visited the island starting in the 1500s but none made it into the country’s interior. American and British whaling ships frequented the islands off the coast of New Guinea in the mid-1800s. In 1884, Germany declared a protectorate - and eventually a colony - over the northern part of what would become PNG and named it German New Guinea; days later the UK followed suit on the southern part and nearby islands and called it Papua. Most of their focus was on the coastal regions, leaving the highlands largely unexplored.

Geographic coordinates	6 00 S, 147 00 E
Area	total: 462,840 sq. km
land:	452,860 sq km
water:	9,980 sq km
country comparison to the world:	57
Area - comparative	slightly larger than California
Area comparison map	Land boundaries total: 824 km
Border countries	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
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
Irrigated land	0 sq. km (2012)
Population	7,399,757 (July 2021 est.)

country comparison to the world	102
Nationality	noun: Papua New Guinean(s)
Ethnic groups	Melanesian, Papuan, Negrito, Micronesian, Polynesian
Languages	Tok Pidgin (official), English (official), Hiri Motu (official), some 839 indigenous languages spoken (about 12% of the world's total); many languages have fewer than 1,000 speakers

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