Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a Governor-General. Prime minister : Peter O'Neill
Population
142,517,670
6,310,129
Life Expectancy
66.460 years
66.460 years
Capital City
Moscow
Port Moresby
Largest city
Moscow (population: 10,381,200)
Port Moresby (population: 283,733)
Human Development Index
NA
0.516
GDP per capita
$17,000 US
$2,600 US
Literacy Rate
99.4%
57.3%
Corruption Perception Index
2.1
2
Percentage of Women in Parliament
NA
0.9%
Wealthiest Citizens
Mikhail Prokhorov ($9.5bn US)
NA
Unemployment Rate
6.600%
1.900%
Death Penalty
Abolished in practice
Abolished in practice
Political System
federation
constitutional parliamentary democracy
Independence date
24 August 1991 (from Soviet Union)
16 September 1975 (from the Australian-administered UN trusteeship)
Religions
Russian Orthodox 15-20%, Muslim 10-15%, other Christian 2% (2006 est.) note: estimates are of practicing worshipers; Russia has large populations of non-practicing believers and non-believers, a legacy of over seven decades of Soviet rule
Roman Catholic 27%, Evangelical Lutheran 19.5%, United Church 11.5%, Seventh-Day Adventist 10%, Pentecostal 8.6%, Evangelical Alliance 5.2%, Anglican 3.2%, Baptist 2.5%, other Protestant 8.9%, Bahai 0.3%, indigenous beliefs and other 3.3% (2000 census)
Languages
Russian, many minority languages
Melanesian Pidgin serves as the lingua franca, English spoken by 1%-2%, Motu spoken in Papua region note: 820 indigenous languages spoken (over one-tenth of the world's total)
Exports
petroleum and petroleum products, natural gas, wood and wood products, metals, chemicals, and a wide variety of civilian and military manufactures
Russian rubles (RUB) per US dollar - 24.3 (2008 est.), 25.659 (2007), 27.19 (2006), 28.284 (2005), 28.814 (2004)
kina (PGK) per US dollar - 2.6956 (2008 est.), 3.03 (2007), 3.0643 (2006), 3.08 (2005), 3.2225 (2004)
Military Budget as percentage of GDP
3.900%
1.400%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
72
0
Location
Northern Asia (the area west of the Urals is considered part of Europe), bordering the Arctic Ocean, between Europe and the North Pacific Ocean
Oceania, group of islands including the eastern half of the island of New Guinea between the Coral Sea and the South Pacific Ocean, east of Indonesia
Area
17,098,242 km sq
462,840 km sq
Coastline
37,653 km
5,152 km
Climate
ranges from steppes in the south through humid continental in much of European Russia; subarctic in Siberia to tundra climate in the polar north; winters vary from cool along Black Sea coast to frigid in Siberia; summers vary from warm in the steppes to cool along Arctic coast
tropical; northwest monsoon (December to March), southeast monsoon (May to October); slight seasonal temperature variation
