World geography › Melanesia › New Caledonia

New Caledonia: map and facts

New Caledonia is in Melanesia. It has 295,333 people (2025). It covers 18,576 km². That is about 16 people per km². Its highest point is Mont Panié, at 1,629 m.

Facts

• Population: 295,333 (2025, World Bank)
• Area: 18,576 km² (2024, World Bank)
• Capital: Nouméa
• Highest point: Mont Panié, 1,629 m (Wikidata)
• Forest: 48.1% of the land (2024, World Bank)

Mountains and landscapes

Its highest peaks:

• Mont Panié: 1,629 m (its highest point)
• Mont Humboldt: 1,618 m

Plateaus, plains, deserts and other regions: Loyalty Islands.

Land

Land cover seen from satellites (NASA MODIS, 2024): evergreen broadleaf forest 53.7%, wooded savanna 21.5%, savanna 16.3%, water 2.8%, wetland 2.6%, grassland 1.3%.

Landforms, worked out from the height of the land (USGS GMTED2010): mountains 64.1%, hills 21.5%, plains 14.4%.

Forests covered 48.1% of its land in 2024, up from 45.5% in 1990 (World Bank).

Minerals and fuels

• World #4 in nickel among the countries USGS lists (2025)

Neighbours

New Caledonia has no land borders on this map.

Explore the map of New Caledonia

In the game you can zoom into its rivers, mountains, minerals, terrain and forests. Free, with no sign-up.

Sources

India’s boundaries are drawn according to India’s official position, simplified for small-scale maps (data: Natural Earth, India view). Each figure shows its year and source; some are rounded. Data release 2026.2.

• Natural Earth (naturalearthdata.com), public domain. Boundaries follow India's official position (Natural Earth's India point of view). Terms
• GMTED2010 courtesy of the U.S. Geological Survey (Danielson and Gesch 2011, USGS Open-File Report 2011-1073). Terms
• Friedl, M., Sulla-Menashe, D. (2022). MODIS/Terra+Aqua Land Cover Type Yearly L3 Global 500m SIN Grid V061. NASA EOSDIS Land Processes DAAC. doi:10.5067/MODIS/MCD12Q1.061. Terms
• The World Bank: World Development Indicators, Population, total (SP.POP.TOTL): UN Population Division, national statistical offices (2025 data, retrieved 2026-10-17). CC BY 4.0. Rounded by Make Me Smarter. Terms
• The World Bank: World Development Indicators, Surface area (AG.SRF.TOTL.K2): FAO (2024 data, retrieved 2026-10-17). CC BY 4.0. Terms
• The World Bank: World Development Indicators, Forest area (% of land area) (AG.LND.FRST.ZS): FAO, FAOSTAT (2024 data, retrieved 2026-10-17). CC BY 4.0. Rounded by Make Me Smarter. Terms
• Wikidata (CC0): names, capitals, peak heights and river lengths, checked by Make Me Smarter. Terms
• Credit: U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 data release (doi:10.5066/P1WKQ63T). Terms
• Landforms worked out by Make Me Smarter from GMTED2010.

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