Where is Papua New Guinea located on the map? Papua New Guinea is an independent nation located in Melanesia. Check out the following images to see location of Papua New Guinea on maps.
Papua New Guinea Location in World Map
Papua New Guinea is an island nation and the third largest in the world. Only Indonesia and Madagascar are bigger. The islands are still part of the Australian continent. Papua New Guinea is an independent state in the east of the island of New Guinea, while the west of New Guinea belongs to Indonesia as a state.
In addition to the main island, there are other smaller islands. There should be a total of 1400 islands, but the numbers fluctuate. Papua New Guinea is part of the Melanesia archipelago, which extends from New Guinea to the Fiji Islands.
Here you can see the location of the many small islands of Papua New Guinea on a map.
One large and many small islands
A large part of Papua New Guinea is occupied by the main island of New Guinea, which is over 800,000 square kilometers in size and thus the second largest island in the world after Greenland. However, the west of the island belongs to Indonesia, only the east to Papua New Guinea.
The second island belonging to Papua New Guinea called New Britain is much smaller with just over 36,000 square kilometers. There is also an island called Samarai, which is only 0.25 square kilometers, but is of great importance for trade. Other archipelagos with many small islands also belong to Papua New Guinea. The country’s coastline is over 5000 kilometers.
Landscapes
The landscape is characterized by an extraordinary diversity. High mountains, wide valleys, glacier landscapes, grass, savannas, forests and alpine regions alternate here. Some of the volcanoes in Papua New Guinea are still active. Then there are the beaches and of course the seascapes. The longest river is called Sepik. In the north of the country, large coral reefs shape the landscape.
Mountains
In total, the country is 462,840 square kilometers. Rainforest covers a large part of the islands. Almost half of the country are criss-crossed by mountains up to 1000 meters high. A quarter of the country is covered by mountains with heights between 1000 and 3000 meters.
About 4 percent of the mountains are even higher than 3000 meters. Papua New Guinea has more than 100 volcanoes, some of which are still active. The highest mountain in the country is Mount Wilhelm at 4509 meters.
Climate
The climate in Papua New Guinea is tropical. That means it will be hot, but also quite humid. The monsoons , which also influence the rainy and dry seasons, have a great influence. From December to May it rains a lot and from May to October it is dry.
Temperatures of 25 to 30 degrees exist all year round. However, the temperatures fluctuate depending on the region, so there can be frost in the mountain areas, while temperatures of 30 degrees prevail on the coasts. Rain falls sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on the region.
Papua New Guinea Facts
| Size | 462,840 km² |
| Residents | 8.6 million |
| Languages | Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, English |
| Capital | Port Moresby |
| Longest river | Sepik (1,200 km) |
| Highest mountain | Mount Wilhelm (4,509 m) |
| Currency | Kina |