Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an Oceanian country that occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and its offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean north of Australia. Its capital, located along its southeastern coast, is Port Moresby. The western half of New Guinea forms the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. There are hardly more culturally diverse countries in the world than Papua New Guinea; 852 languages are listed for the country, of which 12 have no known living speakers. Most of the population of over 7 million people live in traditional, local communities, which are as diverse in their customs and ways as their languages. It is also one of the most rural countries in the world, as only 18% of its people live in urban centres. The country is one of the world’s least explored, culturally and geographically; many undiscovered species of plants and animals are thought to exist in the interior, as well as groups of people who are yet to be contacted by modern civilisation.
The country’s currency is the Papua New Guinean kina.