Provinces of Papua New Guinea

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Updates: 

Luis R. Domingos pointed out where I could find the correspondence between regions and provinces.

Donald Yost informed me that the Papua New Guinea Business Directory  website has a page with province populations from the 2000 census. The data are identified as "2000 census preliminary figures", and attributed to the National Statistical Office of Papua New Guinea. I have listed these figures in the table below.

FIPS PUB 10-4 is the U.S. Federal standard for administrative divisions of countries. Change 1 to FIPS PUB 10-4 is dated December 1, 1998. In Papua New Guinea, it notes the new name Bougainville. The ISO standard still calls it North Solomons.

Country overview: 

In 1900, the island of New Guinea was divided into a Dutch colony in the west, a German colony in the northeast, and a British protectorate in the southeast. In 1905-11, the Commonwealth of Australia took over the administration of British New Guinea. On 1906-09-01, British New Guinea was renamed the Territory of Papua. German New Guinea was mandated to Great Britain by the League of Nations on 1920-12-17. On 1946-12-13, the mandate became a Trust Territory of Australia under the United Nations. The two territories were jointly administered beginning on 1949-07-01, under the name Papua New Guinea. They became a single independent country on 1975-09-16.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Papua Ny Guinea
2. Dutch: Papua Nieuw Guinea, Papoea-Nieuw-Guinea
3. Finnish: Papua-Uusi-Guinea
4. French: Papouasie-Nouvelle-Guinée f
5. German: Papua-Neuguinea n
6. Icelandic: Papúa
7. Italian: Papua Nuova Guinea f
8. Norwegian: Papua Ny-Guinea
9. Portuguese: Papua f -Nova Guiné f
10. Spanish: Papúa-Nueva Guinea, Estado m Independiente de Papúa Nueva Guinea f (formal)
11. Swedish: Papua Nya Guinea

Origin of name: 

Union of Papua and Australian New Guinea. Papua is Malay for frizzled, referring to natives' hair. The island of New Guinea was named by Spanish explorer Ortiz de Rez, from natives' resemblance to those of Guinea in Africa.

Primary subdivisions: 

Papua New Guinea is divided into nineteen provinces and one district.

Further subdivisions:

Before independence, the districts were divided into subdistricts.

The Business Directory site says that the provinces are grouped into four regions: Highlands, Islands, Momase, and Southern, with four to six provinces in each region. It also says that the provinces are now subdivided into 87 districts.

Territorial extent: 

1. Papua New Guinea shares the island of New Guinea with Indonesia. Chimbu, Eastern Highlands, Enga, Northern, Sandaun, Southern Highlands, and Western Highlands provinces and the National Capital District are almost entirely on New Guinea. For each of the other provinces, I have listed the main islands it occupies, roughly in descending order of size.
2. Central: New Guinea, Yule
3. East New Britain: New Britain, Duke of York, Watom
4. East Sepik: New Guinea, Kairiru, Mushu, Vokeo, Walis, Blup Blup
5. Gulf: New Guinea, Morigio
6. Madang: New Guinea, Long, Karkar, Manam, Bagbag
7. Manus: Admiralty Islands (Manus, Rambutyo, Lou, etc.), Ninigo Islands, Hermit Islands, etc.
8. Milne Bay: New Guinea, D'Entrecasteaux Islands (Fergusson, Normanby, Goodenough), Louisiade Archipelago (Sudest or Tagula, Yela or Rossel, Misima, Panatinane), Marshall Bennett Islands (Woodlark, Madau), Trobriand Islands (Kiriwina, Kaduaga), Engineer Group (Sideia, Basilaki)
9. Morobe: New Guinea, Umbo, Sakar, Tolokiwa
10. New Ireland: New Ireland, New Hanover, Saint Matthias Group (Mussau, Emirau), Tabar Group (Tabar, Tatau, Simberi), Lihir Group (Lihir), Tanga Group (Malendok, Boang), Feni Islands (Ambitle, Babase)
11. North Solomons: Bougainville, Buka, Green Islands (Nissan, Pinipel)
12. Western: New Guinea, Kiwai, Purutu, Wabuda, Naviu, and other islands in the deltas of the Fly and Bumu Rivers
13. West New Britain: New Britain, Lolobau, Witu Islands (Garove, Unea)

Origins of names: 

Bougainville: named for French explorer Louis Antoine, Count of Bougainville

Change history: 

1. As of 1900, the island of New Guinea was divided into a Dutch colony in the west, a German colony in the northeast, and a British protectorate in the southeast.
2. 1904: Bougainville and Buka Islands transferred from British Solomon Islands to German New Guinea.
3. 1905-11: The Commonwealth of Australia took over the administration of British New Guinea.
4. 1906-09-01: Name of British New Guinea changed to Territory of Papua.
5. 1920-12-17: German New Guinea mandated to Great Britain by the League of Nations.
6. 1946-12-13: British mandate became an Australian trust territory under the United Nations.
7. 1949-07-01: Territories of New Guinea and Papua merged administratively under the name Papua New Guinea.
8. 1950-03-01: Umbo, Sakar, and Tolokiwa Islands transferred from New Britain district to Morobe district; East Central district merged with Central; Eastern and South Eastern districts merged to form Milne Bay.
9. 1950-11-20: Name of Kieta district changed to Bougainville.
10. 1951-09-06: Status of the units of Papua changed from divisions to districts; Central Highlands split up to form the new districts of Eastern Highlands, Southern Highlands, and Western Highlands, with other parts annexed to Sepik, Western, and Madang; Delta district merged with Gulf. Note: Central Highlands district had straddled the border between Papua and New Guinea territories. After this reorganization, each district was entirely within one or the other. At this time, the subdivisions were as follows:

1. 1966-06-21: Chimbu district formed from parts of Eastern Highlands, Gulf, Southern Highlands, and Western Highlands; Sepik split into East Sepik and West Sepik; New Britain split into East New Britain and West New Britain.
2. 1971-07-02: Official name of country changed from Territory of Papua and New Guinea to Papua New Guinea.
3. 1973: Enga province formed from parts of Southern Highlands and Western Highlands.
4. 1974: National Capital district split from Central province.
5. 1975-09-16: Papua New Guinea became independent. Status of the subdivisions changed from districts to provinces.
6. 1975: Name of Bougainville province changed to North Solomons.
7. ~1978: Capital of Milne Bay moved from Samarai to Alotau; capital of North Solomons moved from Sohano to Arawa.
8. ~1989: Name of West Sepik province changed to Sandaun.
9. 1996: Name of North Solomons province changed to Bougainville.
10. ~1997: Capital of Bougainville moved from Arawa to Buka.
11. 2002-03-27: Bougainville bills passed by Papua New Guinea parliament. They are intended to lead to autonomy for Bougainville province, and may pave the way to eventual independence.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Chimbu: Simbu (variant)
2. Eastern Highlands: Planalto Oriental (Portuguese)
3. East New Britain: Nova Bretanha Oriental (Portuguese); Nuova Britannia Orientale (Italian)
4. New Ireland: Neuirland (German); Nouvelle-Irlande (French); Nova Irlanda (Portuguese); Nuova Irlanda (Italian)
5. Northern: Oro (variant)
6. North Solomons: Bougainville (obsolete)
7. Sandaun: West Sepik (obsolete)
8. Western: Fly (variant)
9. Western Highlands: Planalto Ocidental (Portuguese)
10. West New Britain: Nova Bretanha Ocidental (Portuguese); Nuova Britannia Occidentale (Italian)

Population history:

Some areas of North Solomons were omitted from the 2000 census. In Islands region, 1990 population figures are estimates.