Papua New Guinea is a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with provincial and local-level governments. It has hundreds of languages and a resource economy based on gas, gold and copper; Bougainville voted for independence in a 2019 referendum.
In the 12 Axes register, Papua New Guinea leans hardest on Irreligious – Religious: Religious 83%; the register median is Religious 68%.
Take the test and this line shows how close your twelve scores are to Papua New Guinea, and the axis where you differ most.
Where Papua New Guinea sits on each of the twelve axes, in four categories. The label is our estimate; the line under it says why.
Centrist
Provincial and local-level governments
Representative Democracy
Elected parliament, frequent no-confidence votes
Liberal
Courts active, press largely free
Non-Interventionist
Security pact with Australia in 2023
Non-Aggressive
Small defence force, tribal conflict focus
Polyculturalist
Hundreds of languages, no single culture
Economic Liberal
Resource economy with state stakes
Markets
Mining and gas led by private firms
Free Trade
Open to resource investment
Religious
2025 amendment declared PNG a Christian country
Traditionalist
Male same-sex acts remain criminalised
Neutral
No distinct state stance
Set against the median of all 195 countries in the register.
Federal – Unitary
On Federal – Unitary, Papua New Guinea is at balanced 50%. The register median is Unitary 68%.
Internationalism – Nationalism
On Internationalism – Nationalism, Papua New Guinea is at balanced 50%, almost the register median of balanced 50%.
Closeness is 100 minus the root-mean-square distance on all twelve axes.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · freedomhouse.org
Map: Zuanzuanfuwa, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped and resized.
Last updated: 2026-10-15
The tiers on this page are our estimates from public positions and policies. They are not an official statement by the person or the government concerned. Two independent passes scored every axis and a third settled the differences. How the register works. Found a mistake? Write to [email protected].
