Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by a Governor-General. Prime minister : Peter O'Neill
Population
313,847,465
6,310,129
Life Expectancy
78.490 years
66.460 years
Capital City
Washington, DC
Port Moresby
Largest city
New York City (population: 8,008,280)
Port Moresby (population: 283,733)
Human Development Index
0.95
0.516
GDP per capita
$49,000 US
$2,600 US
Literacy Rate
99%
57.3%
Corruption Perception Index
7.3
2
Percentage of Women in Parliament
16.6%
0.9%
Wealthiest Citizens
William Gates III ($40.0bn US)
NA
Unemployment Rate
9.000%
1.900%
Death Penalty
Legal
Abolished in practice
Political System
Constitution-based federal republic; strong democratic tradition
constitutional parliamentary democracy
Independence date
4 July 1776 (from Great Britain)
16 September 1975 (from the Australian-administered UN trusteeship)
Religions
Protestant 51.3%, Roman Catholic 23.9%, Mormon 1.7%, other Christian 1.6%, Jewish 1.7%, Buddhist 0.7%, Muslim 0.6%, other or unspecified 2.5%, unaffiliated 12.1%, none 4% (2007 est.)
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
English 82.1%, Spanish 10.7%, other Indo-European 3.8%, Asian and Pacific island 2.7%, other 0.7% (2000 census) note: Hawaiian is an official language in the state of Hawaii
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)
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
4.060%
1.400%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
110
0
Location
North America, bordering both the North Atlantic Ocean and the North Pacific Ocean, between Canada and Mexico
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
9,826,675 km sq
462,840 km sq
Coastline
19,924 km
5,152 km
Climate
mostly temperate, but tropical in Hawaii and Florida, arctic in Alaska, semiarid in the great plains west of the Mississippi River, and arid in the Great Basin of the southwest; low winter temperatures in the northwest are ameliorated occasionally in January and February by warm chinook winds from the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains
tropical; northwest monsoon (December to March), southeast monsoon (May to October); slight seasonal temperature variation
