Sustainable Development Goals for Papua New Guinea

Child well-being

UNICEF’S commitment to data for children is guided by the fact that the SDGs impact every aspect of a child’s life. Our work is structured around 5 overarching areas of well-being for every child which are grounded in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

This human rights-based approach pursues a vision of realizing the rights of every child, especially the most disadvantaged and responds to the call to “leave no child behind”, so that the rights of every child, everywhere, will be fulfilled.

Child-related SDG indicators

The 2030 Agenda includes 17 Global Goals addressing the social, economic and environmental dimensions of sustainable development. Attached to the Goals are 169 concrete targets measured by 232 specific indicators.

To chart and track how ambitious and how realistic country targets are, UNICEF created quantifiable country-level benchmarks for child-related indicators for which data are available to measure and monitor child rights on a common scale.

Provided below is a stocktaking of the country’s performance against the 45 child-related SDG indicators, grouping the results into five areas of child well-being to provide an overall assessment of how children are faring. The countries are evaluated using global and national targets. The analysis provides valuable insights into both historic progress – recognizing the results delivered by countries in the recent past – as well as how much additional effort might be required to achieve the child-related SDG targets. This approach provides a framework to assess ambition as well as the scale of action needed to realize it.

Value
Latest year
with data
Historic progress
Effort needed to meet the 2030 target
Survive+thrive Survive+thrive
2.2.1 Prevalence of stunting among children under 5 (%)
51
2022
Very weak
Very high effort
2.2.2a Prevalence of wasting among children under 5 (%)
14
2010
Very weak
Very high effort
2.2.2a Prevalence of overweight among children under 5 (%)
16
2022
Very weak
Very high effort
3.b.1 Proportion of surviving infants receiving measles-containing-vaccine first-dose (MCV1) (%)
44
2022
Average
Very high effort
3.b.1 Proportion of surviving infants receiving 3 doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP3) (%)
36
2022
Average
Very high effort
3.1.1 Maternal mortality ratio (deaths per 100,000 live births)
192
2020
Average
Very high effort
3.1.2 Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel (%)
56
2018
Very strong
Very high effort
3.2.1 Under-five mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births)
43
2021
Average
Very high effort
3.2.2 Neonatal mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births)
21
2021
Average
Very high effort
3.3.1 (HIV Incidence) – New HIV infections per 1,000 uninfected population [Children <15]
1
2022
Average
Very high effort
3.3.1 (HIV Incidence) – New HIV infections per 1,000 uninfected population [Adolescents 15-19]
0
2022
Weak
Very high effort
3.7.2 Adolescent birth rate per 1,000 women
68
2016
Strong
Very high effort
3.8.1 Coverage of essential health services (index)
30
2021
Weak
Very high effort
5.6.1 Proportion of women aged 15–49 years who make their own informed decisions regarding reproductive health care (%)
37
2018
No trend data available
No trend data available
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people in grades 2 or 3 achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
No data
No data
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people in grades 2 or 3 achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
No data
No data
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of primary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
No data
No data
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of primary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
No data
No data
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in reading (%)
No data
No data
4.1.1 Proportion of children and young people at the end of lower secondary achieving at least a minimum proficiency level in mathematics (%)
No data
No data
4.1.2 Completion rate in primary education (%)
59
2020
Very strong
No target
4.1.2 Completion rate in lower secondary education (%)
30
2020
Strong
No target
4.1.2 Completion rate in upper secondary education (%)
13
2020
Weak
Very high effort
4.2.1 Proportion of children aged 36-59 months who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, by sex (%)
No data
No data
4.2.2 Participation rate in organized learning (one year before the official primary entry age) (%)
71
2018
Average
Average effort
Poverty Poverty
1.1.1 Children living in households in extreme poverty (%)
33
2022
Strong
Very high effort
1.2.1 Children living below the national poverty line (%)
40
2009
No trend data available
No trend data available
1.2.1 Proportion of children living below the national poverty line, both sexes (%), Covid projections
41
2020
No trend data available
No trend data available
1.2.2 Children living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions (%)
86
2016
No trend data available
No trend data available
1.3.1 Proportion of child population covered by social protection floors/systems (%)
No data
No data
Legal frameworks that promote, enforce and monitor gender equality in employment and economic benefits
30
2022
No trend data available
No trend data available

Historic progress

  • Very weak
  • Weak
  • Average
  • Strong
  • Very strong
  • No trend data available
  • No data

Effort needed to hit relative target

  • Target met
  • Very low effort
  • Low effort
  • Average effort
  • High effort
  • Very high effort
  • Above recorded history
  • No trend data available
  • No data
  • No target

Note: This dashboard uses internationally comparable data from the global databases held on behalf of the international community by UNICEF and other United Nations agencies. While UNICEF is committed to the localization of SDG targets, global rather than national targets are used to gauge progress on the SDG indicators.  To read more about how the trajectories towards the global targets are assessed please read the methodology note.

Population overview

Understanding of a country’s population levels, trends and projections constitutes an essential ingredient in strategic planning, policy development and program implementation for addressing global challenges and emerging issues.

Total population: 10,329,931 (2023 projections)

Age (yrs)
Male
Female
0-4
5-9
10-14
15-19
20-24
25-29
30-34
35-39
40-44
45-49
50-54
55-59
60-64
65-69
70-74
75-79
80-84
85-89
90-94
95-99
100+
630,348
588,539
607,155
564,592
578,649
532,397
543,362
495,174
500,605
458,894
453,589
422,258
407,919
392,501
353,283
351,752
299,895
298,064
256,708
251,936
212,082
205,193
173,909
162,461
131,332
117,155
83,527
74,523
48,873
47,002
26,339
26,242
11,103
12,417
3,633
4,283
869
1,015
156
170
17
19
10
7.5
5
2.5
0
2.5
5
7.5
10
Share of total population (%)

Source: United Nations Population Division, World Population Prospects 2022

Related SDG resources