The New Guinea Islands Region is one of four
regions
In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as areas, zones, lands or territories, are portions of the Earth's surface that are broadly divided by physical characteristics (physical geography), human impact characteristics (human geography), and ...
of
Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is an island country in Oceania that comprises the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and offshore islands in Melanesia, a region of the southwestern Pacific Ocean n ...
(PNG), comprising the
Bismarck Archipelago
The Bismarck Archipelago (, ) is a group of islands off the northeastern coast of New Guinea in the western Pacific Ocean and is part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. Its area is about .
History
The first inhabitants of the archipela ...
and north-western
Solomon Islands Archipelago, located north-east of
New Guinea
New Guinea (; Hiri Motu: ''Niu Gini''; , fossilized , also known as Papua or historically ) is the List of islands by area, world's second-largest island, with an area of . Located in Melanesia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, the island is ...
island (the mainland).
This is the least populous inhabited region of the country with an estimated population of 1,096,000 (15% of PNG) in 2011.
[PNG National Statistical Office]
It is distinct through its prehistory and history, as shown by the prevalence of
Austronesian languages
The Austronesian languages ( ) are a language family widely spoken throughout Maritime Southeast Asia, parts of Mainland Southeast Asia, Madagascar, the islands of the Pacific Ocean and Taiwan (by Taiwanese indigenous peoples). They are spoken ...
, and archeological findings of
Lapita pottery culture.
Subdivision
The Region is administratively divided into five provinces:
*
Bougainville (North Solomons)
*
East New Britain
East New Britain is a Provinces of Papua New Guinea, province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital ...
*
Manus
*
New Ireland
*
West New Britain
See also
*
Bougainville Island
Bougainville Island (; Tok Pisin: ''Bogenvil'') is the main island of the Autonomous Region of Bougainville, which is part of Papua New Guinea. Its land area is . The highest point is Mount Balbi, on the main island, at .
The much smaller Buk ...
*
Provinces of Papua New Guinea
For administrative purposes, Papua New Guinea is divided into administrative divisions of Papua New Guinea, administrative divisions called provinces. There are 22 provincial-level divisions, which include #List of provinces, 20 provinces, t ...
References
Regions of Papua New Guinea
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