New Ireland Province

New Ireland Province is one of the 21 provinces of Papua New Guinea and is situated in the Bismarck Archipelago. It comprises 149 islands, the largest of which is New Ireland (formerly New Mecklenburg ), which gave its name to the province.

The New Ireland Province ( NIP) covers 9600 km ² and counted in 2000, approximately 120,000 inhabitants ( about 12 inhabitants per km ²). Its capital is Kavieng on the northern cape of the main island of New Ireland with 12,000 inhabitants. In addition to New Ireland with 8650 km ², there are two slightly larger islands: Lavongai (formerly New Hanover ) with 1191 km ² and its capital Umbukul, and the sparsely populated Mussau Island in the north of the province, which belongs to the St. Matthias Islands. For the New Ireland Province also includes the small islands of the Tabar Islands and the Lihir islands on the north-east Pacific side, as well as the Tingyon group and the island Dyaul on the southwest side in the Bismarck Sea. On the volcanic island Niolam ( Lihir ) is a gold mine, which has one of the largest gold deposits in the world.

Districts and LLGs

The New Ireland province is divided into two districts. Each district consists of one or more distinguish " areas at the local administrative level ," Local Level Government ( LLG ) areas which in Rural (rural ) or urban ( urban) LLGs.