Papua New Guinea
Independent State of Papua New Guinea
- Capital
- Port Moresby
- Region
- Melanesia
- Population, 2025
- 11 million
- Currency
- PGK
- Area
- 462,840 km²
Across Papua New Guinea's 1 priced cities, one person needs about $2,316 a month, rent included; the average net salary is $434.
Livability
The same seven domains as for cities, scored at country level; safety falls back to the homicide rate where Numbeo has no survey.
- Purchasing power25%16
- Safety20%19
- Health care15%No data
- Climate10%No data
- Air quality10%81
- Connectivity10%34
- Cost10%19
How each domain is scored
- Purchasing power, 25%
- What a local net salary buys against local prices, as a percentile.
- Safety, 20%
- Numbeo safety index for the city, or for its country when the city has no survey.
- Health care, 15%
- Numbeo health care index, city first, then country.
- Climate, 10%
- Numbeo climate index where surveyed, otherwise a comfort score from NASA climate normals.
- Air quality, 10%
- 30-day mean US AQI on a 0-100 scale: 100 at AQI 25 or cleaner, 0 at 150 or worse.
- Connectivity, 10%
- Percentile of median fixed broadband download speed, city first, then country.
- Cost, 10%
- Cheaper places score higher: the percentile of the cost-of-living plus rent index, inverted.
What it costs
Averages over the country’s cities, weighted by population. New York = 100.
Economy
World Bank development indicators; each figure is the latest year with data.
Taxes
Headline rates side by side from three references, with the source of each.
- Top income tax rate
- 42%
- SourcePwC
- Corporate tax
- 30%
- SourceTrading Economics
- VAT or sales tax
- 10%
- SourceTrading Economics
- Capital gains, individuals
- 15%
- SourcePwC
- Social security, employee
- 6%
- SourceTrading Economics
- Social security, employer
- 8.4%
- SourceTrading Economics
Headline statutory rates as of Sep 2026; brackets, allowances and regional taxes change what a given person pays.
Safety and internet
Numbeo’s crime survey, the World Bank homicide series and the Speedtest Global Index.
Safety
- Safety indexNumbeo, higher is safer
- 19.2
- Crime indexNumbeo, lower is better
- 80.8
- HomicidesPer 100,000 people, 2010
- 9.3
Internet
- Fixed downloadMbps, median, #99 worldwide
- 68
- Mobile downloadMbps, median
- —
- Change in a yearFixed download speed
- —
Cities in Papua New Guinea
Sort by any column. Livability and cost use the same scales as every city page.
| 1Port Moresby | 34 | 46.2 | $1,623 | $434 | 21.4 | 283.7K | Medium confidence, 14 contributors |
| 2Lae | — | — | $450 | $157 | — | 76.3K | Low confidence, 2 contributors |
| 3Mount Hagen | — | — | — | — | — | 33.6K | Low confidence, 0 contributors |
| 4Madang | — | — | — | $229 | — | 27.4K | Low confidence, 0 contributors |
| 5Goroka | — | — | — | — | — | 18.5K | Low confidence, 0 contributors |
| 6Bulolo | — | — | — | — | — | 16K | Low confidence |
| 7Alotau | — | — | — | — | — | 10K | Low confidence |
| 8Lihir Island | — | — | — | — | — | — | Low confidence, 0 contributors |
| 9Buka | — | — | — | — | — | — | Low confidence |