Brunei vs Papua New Guinea

Brunei scores 54.8 in the NationsTree Index (69th in the world) and Papua New Guinea scores 29.5 (164th), a gap of 25.4 points. Their trees are 4.0 m and 4.0 m tall; tree height grows with real GDP and is adjusted by the index.

Papua New Guinea has 23 times the population of Brunei. Papua New Guinea is 80 times larger than Brunei by land area. The economy of Papua New Guinea is 30% larger than that of Brunei (GDP at purchasing power parity). Population: Brunei 466,330 and Papua New Guinea 10.8 million (2025).

GDP per person at purchasing power parity is $92,430 in Brunei and $5,215 in Papua New Guinea (2025, international dollars). People in Brunei live on average 9.2 years longer (75.5 vs 66.3 years).

Of 31 indicators reported by both countries, Brunei ranks higher in the world on 23 and Papua New Guinea on 8. Brunei is clearly stronger in military, infrastructure & digital and institutions & safety. Papua New Guinea is clearly stronger in environment & energy, natural resources and land & people.

As a nation, Brunei is the older of the two (statehood since 1368, 658 years), compared with Papua New Guinea (since 1975). Over the last five years Papua New Guinea improved faster (direction score 72 vs 6 out of 100).