Papua New Guinea (PNG) has a population of approximately 7.7 million. The PNG mainland and its six hundred islands have a total land area of 452,860 square kilometres. Most people living in PNG are Melanesian, but some are Micronesian or Polynesian. PNG has over 800 known languages. English, Tok Pisin (Pidgin), and Hiri Motu (the lingua franca of the Papuan region) are the official languages. The spectrum of PNG society now ranges from traditional village-based life, dependent on subsistence and small cash-crop agriculture, to modern urban life in the main cities of Port Moresby (capital), Lae, Madang, Wewak, Goroka, Mt Hagen, and Rabaul. Some 80-85 per cent of the population directly derive their livelihood from farming, and 15-20 per cent of the population live in urban areas. Population growth is estimated to have been 2.1 per cent in 2015, the most recent year for which data is available.
