


Minority religions include the Bahá'í Faith (15,000 people) and Islam (more than 4000 people). However, many citizens combine their Christian faith with some pre-Christian traditional indigenous religious practices customary actions and behavior. The 2000 census found that 96% of citizens identified themselves as members of a Christian church. In this region, people often use the third official language, Hiri Motu. The only area where Tok Pisin is not dominant is the southern region of Papua. The primary lingua franca a common language used by people of diverse backgrounds to communicate with one another of the country is Tok Pisin (commonly known in English as New Guinea Pidgin). English is an official language and is the language of government and the education system. There are three official languages in Papua New Guinea. The indigenous languages are classified into two large groups: Austronesian languages and non-Austronesian (or Papuan) languages. Over 820 indigenous languages in the country represent twelve percent of the world's total. Papua New Guinea has more languages than any other country. There are also numerous people from other parts of the world in the country, including Chinese, Europeans, Australians, Filipinos, Polynesians and Micronesians. Another ethnic group is the group of Austronesians. Many remote distant or otherwise disconnected from others Papuan tribes socially, ethnically, and politically cohesive groups of people still have only little contact with the outside world. There are more languages spoken in New Guinea than anywhere else in the world as there are over 820 different indigenous languages. Tok Pisin is a Melanesian pidgin language. The majority is from the group known as Papuans. The official languages of Papua New Guinea are Tok Pisin, Hiri Motu, English and Sign Language. There are hundreds of ethnic groups indigenous to Papua New Guinea. There are almost as many traditional societies in the population of just under 7 million. There are over 850 indigenous native to a land or region, especially before an intrusion languages in the country. Papua New Guinea is one of the most diverse consisting of many different elements countries on Earth.
