East New Britain is a province of Papua New Guinea, consisting of the north-eastern part of the island of New Britain and the Duke of York Islands. The capital of the province is Kokopo, not far from the old capital of Rabaul, which was largely destroyed in a volcanic eruption in 1994. East New Britain covers a total land area of 15816 km2, and the province's population was reported as 220,133 in the 2000 census, rising to 328,369 in the 2011 count. Provincial coastal waters extend over an area of 104000 m2. The province's only land border is with West New Britain Province to the west, and it also shares a maritime border with New Ireland Province to the east.
East New Britain has a dual economy: a cash economy operates side by side with the subsistence-farming sector. The main crops produced for export are cocoa and copra. Tourism continues to be an increasingly important sector of the provincial economy.
There are sixteen Austronesian languages spoken in the province, of which Kuanua, spoken by the Tolai on the Gazelle Peninsula is the most widely spoken. Papuan languages are also spoken in the province, including the Baining, Taulil, Ata, Kol, Makolkol, and Sulka languages.
