Land use: arable land: 0.49% permanent crops: 1.4% other: 98.11% (2005)
Irrigated land:
NA
Natural hazards:
active volcanism; situated along the Pacific "Ring of Fire"; the
country is subject to frequent and sometimes severe earthquakes; mud
slides; tsunamis
Environment - current issues:
rain forest subject to deforestation as a result of growing
commercial demand for tropical timber; pollution from mining
projects; severe drought
Environment - international agreements:
party to: Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate
Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species,
Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine
Dumping, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83,
Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands
signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements
Geography - note:
shares island of New Guinea with Indonesia; one of world's largest
swamps along southwest coast
People Papua New Guinea
Population:
5,670,544 (July 2006 est.)
Age structure:
0-14 years: 37.8% (male 1,090,879/female 1,054,743)
15-64 years: 58.3% (male 1,703,204/female 1,601,224)
65 years and over: 3.9% (male 103,054/female 117,440) (2006 est.)
Median age:
total: 21.2 years
male: 21.4 years
female: 21.1 years (2006 est.)