Papua New Guinea: its people, culture and history

Mt Hagen Show. Credit: Tourism Promotion Authority/David Kirkland

Demography

Papua New Guinea’s population is among the most culturally and linguistically diverse in the world, although its population is overwhelmingly Melanesian, with smaller groups of Micronesians and Polynesians.

PNG’s official population is 10.2 million, according to the most recent census in 2024. The most populous region is the Highlands Region, with 3.6 million people, followed by the Momase (2.8 million), Southern (2.3 million) and Islands (1.5 million) regions.

Out of the current population, almost 4.4 million – or 43 per cent – are under the age of 18, highlighting concerns about a ‘youth bulge.’

According to the National Statistical Office, the population grew at an annual average rate of 2.6% between 2011 and 2024. Growth was highest in the Southern Region, which includes the capital Port Moresby, at 3.6%.

Life expectancy at birth is currently 66.5 years, according to the World Health Organization.

The majority of PNG’s population – around 85 to 87 per cent – live in rural areas.

Languages

About 850 indigenous languages are spoken throughout PNG, making it the most linguistically diverse country in the world.

The three official languages are English, Tok Pisin and Hiri Motu.

English is the language of government, the education system and business. Tok Pisin is the most widely spoken language.

Culture

The hundreds of distinct and separate communities that make up PNG’s population are divided by language, customs and tradition. Despite these differences, traditional PNG societies have key things in common: they generally operate in a subsistence economy, recognise the wantok system of social obligation, allow for status to be attained rather than inherited, and have a deep attachment to communally-held land.

The wantok system is a complex arrangement of obligations, which can require Papua New Guineans to assist other members of their extended tribe through the redistribution of income and wealth. This can mitigate against the amassing of personal wealth.

The management of land is intrinsically linked to Papua New Guinean culture. About 97% of PNG’s land is held under customary ownership. This can provide a challenge for those seeking to secure land for commercial ventures. There is therefore an ongoing process of land reform in PNG.

History

Archaeological evidence indicates that humans have inhabited the island of New Guinea since 50,000 to 60,000 years ago.

Different groups of settlers arrived separately and lived in isolation from one another, developing their own languages, tribal cultures and rivalries. Archaeological evidence points to the settlers in the Kuk Valley in the Highlands region being among the first humans to develop agricultural systems, around the same time that gardening was first evolving in Mesopotamia and Egypt, and well before the famous rice terraces of Luzon in the Philippines.

In the late 16th century, the Portuguese explorer Don Jorge de Meneses sighted New Guinea Island and named it Ilhas dos Papuas. The term ‘New Guinea’ was applied to the island in 1545 by Spanish navigator, Íñigo Ortiz de Retes, due to a perceived resemblance between the New Guinean people and those found on the Guinea coast of Africa.

There is evidence of the presence of Chinese traders on the Central Province coast in the 15th century. In the mid-1800s, European missionaries and traders began to settle along the coast of New Guinea Island. However, the Highlands region was not explored by Europeans until the 1930s.

A German presence in the northern part of modern-day PNG, known as German New Guinea, grew in the late 19th century as part of a trading network. In 1883, the Colony of Queensland in Australia attempted to annex the southern part of modern-day PNG, in a bid to pre-empt a German annexation attempt. Great Britain then established the area as part of the protectorate of British New Guinea. Australia assumed administrative responsibility from the British in 1902, and in 1906 it was renamed to the Territory of Papua. At the start of World War I, Australia seized German New Guinea, and it became known as the Territory of New Guinea.

New Guinea was also the site of territorial manoeuvring and warfare during World War 2. Japanese forces occupied the northern half of New Guinea and got within 56 kilometres of Port Moresby. However, by January 1943, Australian and US forces had driven Japanese soldiers out of New Guinea.

Following World War 2, the United Nations gave Australia a trusteeship over the Territory of New Guinea. The subsequent Papua and New Guinea Act 1949 of the Australian parliament united, for administrative purposes, the two separate territories of Papua and New Guinea into the Territory of Papua and New Guinea.

The move towards independence began soon after the war.

On 1 December 1973, the territories of Papua and New Guinea became the self-governing area of Papua New Guinea. The country became an independent state on 16 September 1975.

In 1988, the province of Bougainville attempted to secede from Papua New Guinea. A nine-year conflict followed, with an estimated 20,000 people dying in the conflict. It ended with the signing of a peace agreement in 1997. Bougainville currently has an autonomous government and four members in the PNG National Parliament. However, at the end of 2019, Bougainvilleans voted overwhelmingly for independence from Papua New Guinea in a plebiscite. In 2021, the governments of PNG and Bougainville reached an agreement for Bougainville to become independent by 2027, pending ratification by PNG’s parliament.