Papua New Guinea is made up of the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, called the mainland. Papua New Guinea is bounded on the north by the Bismarck Sea; on the east by the Solomon Sea; on the south by the Coral Sea, the Gulf of Papua, and the Torres Strait; and on the west by the Indonesian province of Irian Jaya. The nation has an area of
462,840 sq. km (178,704 sq. mi.). Port Moresby (population, 1990 preliminary, 193,242), is the capital of the country and its principal city. The population of Papua New Guinea (1990, preliminary) was 3,689,000, yielding a density of about 8 persons per sq. km (about 20 per sq. mi.).