Papua New Guinea

Year

DEMOGRAPHICS, GENDER AND POVERTY

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Department of Health
P.O. Box 807, Waigani
National Capital District,
Papua New Guinea
Fax: (675) 301-3604
WHO Representative in Papua New Guinea
4th Floor, AOPI CENTRE
Waigani Drive
Papua New Guinea
P.O. Box 5896 Boroko,
National Capital District,
Papua New Guinea
Tel:(675) 325-7827/ 301-3698 / 325-2035
Fax:(675) 325-0568
who@png.wpro.who.int

Papua New Guinea has an estimated population of around 5.71 million, with almost 87%5 living in rural areas. Around 800 languages are spoken and each language group has a distinct culture. There are large sociocultural differences between and within provinces. The official languages are English, Pidgin and Motu.

Access to widely scattered rural communities is often difficult, slow and expensive. Only 3% of the country’s roads are paved. Many villages can only be reached on foot and much travel between provinces is by air.

Papua New Guinea has made some progress in social development over the last 30 years. Literacy rates have risen from 32% to 56%. However, only half of all women aged 15 years and above and two-thirds of all men aged 15 years and older have ever attended school, and enrolment rates vary significantly across provinces. Life expectancy has risen from 49 to 539 years, and Papua New Guinea’s Human Development Index has risen from 0.43 to 0.54. However, in recent years, progress has slowed.

Because of the economic stagnation as well as the widespread evidence of deterioration in public services, especially in the rural areas, it is a widely held view that living standards for a significant number of Papua New Guineans have declined since 1990. Furthermore, in spite of increasing cost of living, salaries have changed very little over a long period, contributing to a static or possibly worsening poverty situation, particularly in the urban sector. Papua New Guinea is now developing a poverty reduction strategy that is intended to give an added focus to poverty in the existing national Medium-Term Development Strategy (2003–2007). The country is a signatory to the Millennium Development Declaration.

Disclaimer: The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply the expression of an opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or areas or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.