Papua New Guinea Country Facts
Papua Niugin | |
Capital city | Port Moresby |
Surface | 462.840 kmĀ² |
Population | 8,950,000 |
Road network length | 686 km |
Length of highway network | 5 km |
First highway | 2001 |
Motorway name | ? |
Traffic drives | Left |
License plate code | PNG |
Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania, partly located on the large island of New Guinea. The country has almost 9 million inhabitants and is approximately 12 times the size of the Netherlands. The capital is Port Moresby.
Papua New Guinea (PNG) comprises the eastern part of the island of New Guinea and has a land border with Indonesia. This island is a maximum of 1,200 kilometers long and 720 kilometers wide, as far as the part that belongs to Papua New Guinea. In addition, the large island of New Britain belongs to PNG, as well as numerous smaller islands. To the north is the Bismarck Sea, to the east the Solomon Sea and to the south the Coral Sea. At its narrowest point is mainland Australia only 150 kilometers south. Large parts of Papua New Guinea are unexplored, with impenetrable jungles and high mountains over the center of the island of New Guinea. Mount Wilhelm is the highest point in the country at 4,509 meters and the country is one of the few around the equator where snow can occur. The north and south of the country consists of impenetrable jungles and swamps. The capital Port Moresby has 250,000 inhabitants and is one of the few cities in the country, the majority of the population lives in the jungles.
In 1884, the northern part of PNG became part of Germany, as German New Guinea. During the First World War it was occupied by Australia, the southern part had been part of Australia since 1904. In 1975 the country became independent. It is a democratic country, but economically underdeveloped with an income of $2,000 per capita. Large parts of the population still live in traditional tribes. The country is one of the most diverse in the world with 850 languages. The country has a lot of potential in terms of raw materials, but the very difficult terrain makes their extraction difficult. Important export products are oil, copper and gold. Papua New Guinea is one of the least urbanized countries in the world, only 18% of the population lives in a built-up area.
Road Network
The difficult terrain and climate mean that hardly a road network has been developed. In theory there is about 20,000 kilometers of road, but only about 700 kilometers of road is paved. Some roads are privately owned. There are no paved roads between the parts of Papua New Guinea. In the high mountains there is one largely unpaved road. On the north coast, some short paved roads run around Wewak. There are also some paved roads around Madang. A longer coastal road also runs along the north coast of the large island of New Britain. There are some short paved roads on Bougainville Island.
Port Moresby
The capital Port Moresby has a relatively developed road network, especially in relation to the rest of the country. There is one short motorway in Port Moresby, the Poreporena Freeway, which opened in 2001. Port Moresby has a network of dual carriageways, with a ring structure and approach roads. As a result, most important city roads are equipped with separate carriageways. Also, most streets in Port Moresby are paved.
Road numbering
There is no road numbering in Papua New Guinea.
Signage
Little is known about any signage. The signage is green with white letters, based on the Australian model.