Papua New Guinea Cities

< View Papua New Guinea Country Information

View Papua New Guinea Cities Alphabetically

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |

Papua New Guinea Cities by Population

36 cities shown of 36 total Papua New Guinea cities that are over 1,000 in population...

1. Port Moresby 283,733
2. Lae 76,255
3. Arawa 40,266
4. Mount Hagen 33,623
5. Popondetta 28,198
6. Madang 27,419
7. Kokopo 26,273
8. Mendi 26,252
9. Kimbe 18,847
10. Goroka 18,503
11. Wewak 18,230
12. Bulolo 16,042

13. Daru 15,214
14. Wau 14,629
15. Kavieng 14,490
16. Kiunga 11,536
17. Vanimo 11,204
18. Kundiawa 9,383
19. Kainantu 8,509
20. Rabaul 8,074
21. Ialibu 6,915
22. Kokoda 6,199
23. Lorengau 5,806
24. Kerema 5,646

25. Aitape 5,547
26. Wabag 3,958
27. Kieta 3,611
28. Panguna 2,916
29. Morehead 2,246
30. Ambunti 2,073
31. Samarai 1,638
32. Angoram 1,604
33. Porgera 1,578
34. Namatanai 1,376
35. Finschhafen 1,054
36. Kandrian 1,014

Papua New Guinea History

Human remains have been found which have been dated to about 50,000 years ago. These ancient inhabitants probably had their origins in Southeast Asia. Agriculture was independently developed in the New Guinea highlands around 9,000 years ago, making it one of the few areas of original plant domestication in the world. A major migration of Austronesian speaking peoples came to coastal regions roughly 2,500 years ago, and this is correlated with the introduction of pottery, pigs, and certain fishing techniques. More recently, some 300 years ago, the sweet potato entered New Guinea having been introduced to the Moluccas from South America by the then-locally dominant colonial power, Portugal. The far higher crop yields from sweet potato gardens radically transformed traditional agriculture; sweet potato largely supplanted the previous staple, taro, and gave rise to a significant increase in population in the highlands.

Little was known in the West about the island until the nineteenth century, although traders from Southeast Asia had been visiting New Guinea as long as 5,000 years ago collecting bird of paradise plumes, and Spanish and Portuguese explorers had encountered it as early as the sixteenth century. The country's dual name results from its complex administrative history before Independence. The word papua is derived from a Malay word describing the frizzy Melanesian hair, and New Guinea"" was the name coined by the Spanish explorer Yigo Ortiz de Retez, who in 1545 noted the resemblance of the people to those he had earlier seen along the Guinea coast of Africa."

The northern half of the country came into German hands in 1884 as German New Guinea. During World War I, it was occupied by Australia, which had begun administering British New Guinea, the southern part, as the re-named Papua in 1904 once Britain was assured by the federation of the Australian colonies that Queensland, with its equivocal history of race relations, would not have a direct hand in the administration of the territory. After World War I, Australia was given a mandate to administer the former German New Guinea by the League of Nations. Papua, by contrast, was deemed to be an External Territory of the Australian Commonwealth, though as a matter of law it remained a British possession, an issue which had significance for the country's post-Independence legal system after 1975. This difference in legal status meant that Papua and New Guinea had entirely separate administrations, both controlled by Australia.

The two territories were combined into the Territory of Papua and New Guinea after World War II, which later was simply referred to as Papua New Guinea"". The Administration of Papua was now also open to United Nations oversight. However, certain statutes continued to have application only in one of the two territories, a matter considerably complicated today by the adjustment of the former boundary among contiguous provinces with respect to road access and language groups, so that such statutes apply on one side only of a boundary which no longer exists."

Peaceful independence from Australia, the de facto metropolitan power, occurred on September 16, 1975, and close ties remain.