List of towns and cities in Papua New Guinea by population

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (June 2007)

Contents 1 Population in PNG 1.1 List of cities and towns 1.2 Disaster and population shift 2 See also

[edit] Population in PNG

Many of these figures were taken from the most recent PNG census, which was in the year 2000. Many population centres will have substantially grown since the year 2000 (such as Port Moresby, Lae, Kimbe, Kokopo, Aitape and Mendi) due to increasing urbanisation in Papua New Guinea, and disaster recovery. On the other hand, Arawa has shrunk dramatically since 1990 due to war.

[edit] List of cities and towns

Only population areas with more than 5,000 people, or notable centres are ranked. Feel free to extend this.

Rank	Settlement Name	Province	Population
1	Port Moresby*	National Capital District	254,158
2	Lae*	Morobe Province	120,000 ~
3	Arawa*	Bougainville	36,443
4	Mount Hagen*	Western Highlands	27,782
5	Madang*	Madang Province	27,420
6	Wewak*	East Sepik Province	25,143
7	Goroka*	Eastern Highlands	25,000 ~
8	Kokopo*	East New Britain	20,262
9	Popondetta*	Oro Province	19,556
10	Mendi*	Southern Highlands	17,119
*	Rabaul 1990	East New Britain	17,044
*	Hanuabada Village	National Capital District	15,000 ~
11	Kimbe*	West New Britain	14,656
12	Tabubil	Western Province	13,800 ~
13	Daru*	Western Province	12,879
14	Kavieng*	New Ireland	10,600 ~
15	Alotau*	Milne Bay	10,025
16	Vanimo*	Sandaun	9,809
17	Bulolo	Morobe	9,500 ~
18	Kiunga	Western Province	8,265
19	Tari	Southern highlands	8,186
20	Kundiawa*	Simbu	8,147
21	Aitape	Sandaun	8,000 ~
22	Kainantu	Eastern Highlands	6,723
23	Lorengau*	Manus	5,829
24	Ialibu	Southern Highlands	5,478
25	Kerema*	Gulf	5,116
26	Ningerum	Western Province	5000 ~
26	Wau	Morobe	5000 ~
?	Wabag*	Enga	4,072
?	Rabaul	East New Britain	3,885

* Denotes a capital city.
~ Is an estimated population, all other populations were determined by the most recent census, in the year 2000. The next PNG census will be held in 2010.
? Denotes a population with an undetermined rank.

[edit] Disaster and population shift

Natural and man-made disaster historically plays a major role in population shift in Papua New Guinea. The most notable are:

Disaster/Population Shift	Place where affected	Notes
1994 volcanic eruption	*Rabaul, East New Britain	Displaced thousands of residents.
1997 Western Province drought	*Tabubil *Kiunga *Mendi *Tari *Fly River *Southern Highlands	Left many agricultural communities in the highlands without food, and larger landlocked settlements that rely heavily on river shipping. Untold numbers of people died during this time from famine. Many people permanently moved.
1998 earthquake and tsunami	*Aitape *Sandaun Province *East Sepik Province *Sepik Delta	Killed thousands of residents. Many places were also affected with disease afterwards due to improper handling of the dead and greatly reduced living conditions. About 10,000 people became refugees.
Ongoing Bougainville conflict	*Arawa *Kieta *Panguna *Bougainville Island *Buka Island	This conflict caused unmeasurable but significant displacement. The 2000 CIA world Factbook states that 20,000 lives were lost in the conflict by 1997.
Indonesian refugee population shift	*Western Province *Sandaun	Many refugee camps exist on the border of Indonesia, such as Black Wara, one of the biggest. The population of the Western Province refugee camps during the 2000 census was set at around 10,000, although the number of Indonesian refugees in the country is much higher.
Squatter settlements	*Whole country	Most population centres in Papua New Guinea have shantytown-styled settlements, referred to as squatter settlements. Many people move in and out of these settlements periodically, as village life becomes harder, the appeal of urban life and manufactured goods becomes greater, and various government regimes disperse the residents.

[edit] See also

List of cities in Papua New Guinea

List of towns in Papua New Guinea