World geography › Melanesia › Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea: map and facts
Papua New Guinea is in Melanesia. It has about 10.8 million people (2025), the 91st largest population. It covers 462,840 km², the 54th largest by area. That is about 23 people per km². Its highest point is Mount Wilhelm, at 4,509 m. The longest river on its map is the Sepik, 1,126 km from source to mouth.
Facts
- Population: 10,762,817 (2025, World Bank)
- Area: 462,840 km² (2024, World Bank)
- Capital: Port Moresby
- Highest point: Mount Wilhelm, 4,509 m (Wikidata)
- Forest: 75.2% of the land (2024, World Bank)
Rivers
The longest rivers on the map of Papua New Guinea, with the length of each whole river (Wikidata):
- Sepik: 1,126 km
- Fly: 1,050 km
- Ramu: 640 km
- Purari: 470 km
Mountains and landscapes
Its highest peaks:
- Mount Wilhelm: 4,509 m (its highest point)
- Mount Victoria: 4,038 m
- Mount Balbi: 2,715 m
- Ulawun: 2,334 m
- Takuan: 2,210 m
Mountain ranges: New Guinea Highlands and Owen Stanley Range.
Plateaus, plains, deserts and other regions: Melanesia, Bismarck Archipelago, Bougainville Island, New Britain, Solomon Islands, New Ireland, D'Entrecasteaux Islands and Louisiade Archipelago.
Land
Land cover seen from satellites (NASA MODIS, 2024): evergreen broadleaf forest 86.1%, wooded savanna 5.9%, savanna 2.7%, wetland 2.3%, water 1.6%, grassland 1.1%.
Landforms, worked out from the height of the land (USGS GMTED2010): mountains 44.4%, plains 34.3%, hills 17.5%, high mountains 3.7%.
Forests covered 75.2% of its land in 2024, down from 76.4% in 1990 (World Bank).
Minerals and fuels
- World #8 in cobalt among the countries USGS lists (2025)
Neighbours
Papua New Guinea shares land borders with Indonesia on this map.
Explore the map of Papua New Guinea
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.
Report a map problem: muraskaramit@gmail.com
More: every country and territory, and the Map quiz.