Population of Indonesia: demographics, resettlement and national composition

Indonesia, the map of which is located below, is a state that occupies several thousand islands of different sizes. About half of them are inhabited by people. The rest of the territory is uninhabited. The government made several attempts to resettle some of the residents to free areas, but they were unsuccessful.

Demography

Over the past century, the population of Indonesia has increased almost threefold. In this indicator, as of today, it is second only to China, India and the United States. Such a rapid growth in the number of residents of the country is associated with a simultaneous decrease in the death rate and an increase in the birth rate. One can not but note the fact that during this period the average life expectancy in the country has increased (almost 69 years). All this led to the fact that the government at one time even had to develop activities related to family planning and aimed at reducing the rate of growth. As the latest population census conducted in 2010 shows, the population of Indonesia now stands at about 238 million people. It should be noted that about 15% of them are young people under the age of 15, while elderly people account for slightly more than 5% of the state's residents. The number of women and men in it is approximately the same.

Population distribution

The distribution of the population across the country is characterized by high unevenness. In particular, about 60% of all Indonesians live on the island of Java. At the same time, one can not but note the fact that this piece of land accounts for only 7% of the state's area. The density of the population of Indonesia in this region reaches a mark of 990 people per one square kilometer. One of the least populated provinces is Irian Jaya. It occupies almost a fifth of the country's area. Along with this, only one hundredth inhabitant of the state resides here. Thus, for each square kilometer of this region there are slightly more than 4 people. As a rule, Indonesians live in areas of river valleys, in intermountain fertile hollows, as well as near places of mining, logging and export ports. Since the state is an agrarian country, the population of Indonesia is predominantly rural (more than 66%). The largest city here is Jakarta, which has about 10 million inhabitants. It is the capital of the state. The average population density of the country is 102 people per square kilometer.

National composition

In Indonesia there are more than 300 different tribal and ethnic groups. Each of them is distinguished by the presence of one's own language, social organization and customs. The most numerous are the Javanese. They number more than 67 million people (about 45% of the total number of inhabitants of the country). Other numerical ethnic groups are considered to be sands -13%, durres and malay-ones - 6% each, minangkabau - 4%. It should be noted and the fact that the state is inhabited by numerous representatives of non-indigenous peoples. The most common among them were the Chinese, Arabs, Japanese and Indians.

Languages

As numerous studies show, as of today, the population of Indonesia speaks 728 different languages and living dialects. According to this indicator, the country is on the second place in the world. Indonesian is a state language. This status he received in 1945. It is included in the compulsory school curriculum, and is also widely used in colloquial speech by representatives of the urban intelligentsia. Along with this, indigenous people often use the Malayo-Polynesian, Javanese and Madur languages.

Religion

The population of Indonesia predominantly professes Islam in the Sunni direction. Along with this, some other religions are quite widespread. Christians are the most numerous after the Muslims (10%), among whom are Catholics and Protestants. Quite a lot in the country lives and Buddhists. Less than one percent of local residents profess Taoism and Confucianism. Enough for some of the islands was animism, a belief in spirits that hide in trees, rocks, rivers and other natural objects. It should be noted that state legislation guarantees every Indonesian citizen the right to freedom of religion and equality of representatives of all religions.

Human Resources

As it was mentioned above, the country's economy is based on the agrarian sector. Almost 60% of the country's citizens are working. In this regard, it is not surprising that the largest part of the inhabitants of the country (about 45%) are engaged in agriculture. In addition, the population of Indonesia is engaged in services (35%), in industry (16%) and other areas of activity. Approximately 38% of the women living in the state are working. As for the economically active population of the country, its number now amounts to just over 112 million people.