Papua New Guinea

Country	Papua New Guinea
Flag
Capital	name: Port Moresby geographic coordinates: 9 30 S, 147 10 E time difference: UTC+10 (15 hours ahead of Washington, DC during Standard Time)
Population	6,057,263 (July 2009 est.)
GMT	+10
Location	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	total: 462,840 sq km land: 452,860 sq km water: 9,980 sq km
Ethnic groups	Melanesian, Papuan, Negrito, Micronesian, Polynesian
Religions	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	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)
Government type	constitutional parliamentary democracy
National holiday	Independence Day, 16 September (1975)
Constitution	16 September 1975
Legal system	based on English common law; has not accepted compulsory ICJ jurisdiction
Background	The eastern half of the island of New Guinea - second largest in the world - was divided between Germany (north) and the UK (south) in 1885. The latter area was transferred to Australia in 1902, which occupied the northern portion during World War I and continued to administer the combined areas until independence in 1975. A nine-year secessionist revolt on the island of Bougainville ended in 1997 after claiming some 20,000 lives.
Internet country code	.pg