Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea: steady but modest growth, 1980–2024

A resource-rich but overwhelmingly rural Pacific economy, Papua New Guinea depends on gold and copper mining and, since the PNG LNG project began exporting in 2014, liquefied natural gas, while most of its population still lives from subsistence agriculture. Between 1980 and 2024, Papua New Guinea's GDP per capita grew from $813 to $3,007 (current US$), a compound annual growth rate of 3.0% — steady but modest growth. Annual GDP growth averaged 3.3% with a year-to-year standard deviation of 4.8 points, reflecting considerable volatility and periodic crises. Structurally, agriculture's share of the economy moved from 33.1% to 17.0% of GDP (a classic decline as the economy industrialized/modernized), while services rose from 41.2% to 42.0% of GDP, underscoring a shift toward a services-driven economy. On human development, life expectancy rose from 57.4 to 66.3 years, while tertiary school enrollment moved from 1.8% to 1.9%, while the urban population share grew from 13.1% to 15.4%.

What this growth cost: Growth was not without cost: per-capita CO2 emissions fell from 0.56 to 0.52 tonnes CO2e per person; income inequality (Gini index) narrowed from 45.8 to 41.9; the poverty headcount ratio fell from 62.8% to 52.2%.