Babies on Map births by country, 0 CE – 2026

Oceania · Melanesia

How many babies are born in Papua New Guinea?

257 thousand babies born in Papua New Guinea in 2026 — 0.19% of all births worldwide, and the 78th largest of any country. UN projection

Plus or minus about 6%. These years have not happened yet or have not been counted yet. They are the medium variant of the UN's projection, not a record of births that took place.

Births in Papua New Guinea through history

100K 1 CE1000150018002026
Estimated annual births in Papua New Guinea, 0 CE to 2026, on a logarithmic scale. The shaded band on the left marks the years where births are modelled rather than recorded. The marker sits on 2026.
Every figure refers to the area inside Papua New Guinea's present-day borders. Before 1800 the state did not exist in its current form — see how borders are handled.
Year Estimated births Population Per 1,000 Evidence
1 CE ~23K ~560K 40.5 Modelled estimate
1000 ~36K ~890K 40.5 Modelled estimate
1500 ~45K ~1.1M 40.5 Modelled estimate
1800 ~32.6K ~755K 43.3 Historical reconstruction
1900 ~36.4K ~842K 43.3 Historical reconstruction
1950 70.9K 1.54M 45.9 UN estimate
2000 191K 5.54M 34.4 UN estimate
2024 257K 10.6M 24.3 UN projection
2026 257K 10.9M 23.5 UN projection

What the numbers show

Annual births in Papua New Guinea are at their highest in the whole run of estimates in 2026, at about 258K. That is roughly 11 times the estimated ~22.6K births a year in 1 CE.

At 2.99 children per woman, fertility in Papua New Guinea is above the level of about 2.1 that would hold a population steady over the long run without migration.

See Papua New Guinea on the map

Where these numbers come from

2026 figures are the UN World Population Prospects 2024 medium variant. Earlier years come from the UN's estimates (1950 onward), Gapminder's reconstructions (1800–1949) and a model applied to HYDE population estimates (before 1800). The full chain is set out in the methodology, and every source is listed on the sources page.