Indonesia’s Population Profile
Indonesia’s Population Profile
According to the 2010 census, Indonesia’s population is 237.6 million. 58% of these population lives on the Java Island, which is the most populous island in the world. The country has been practising family planning since 1967. Despite this, the nation’s population is expected to surpass that of USA by 2040. This will make it the third largest population after India and China. The period ending 2010 indicated that the country’s population growth rate stood at around 1.4%. Lowering this rate has been a problem due to religion beliefs about giving births (Jones, 2014).
Ethnic Groups and Languages
Indonesia has more than 300 ethnic groups. 94% of these ethnic groups have native Indonesian ancestry. The official language in the country is Indonesian though there are other many different languages estimated to be over 700. Javanese is the most spoken with 40.6% of the population, Sundanese 15%, Minangkabau 2.7%, Madurese 3.3%, Betawi 2.4% and others follow (Jones, 2014).
Religions
The most populous religion in the country is Islam. During the 2010 census, 87.2% of the population declared themselves as Muslims. 8.7% are Christians of which 5.7% are Protestants and 3% Roman Catholics. Hindu encompasses 1.8% while the others take the remaining share (Nitisastro, 2013).
Literacy Levels
In Indonesia, education is not free, but that is a requirement that all children should learn up to the 9th grade. Not the whole percentage of the children that attend school make it on a full-time basis due to various reasons. On average, individuals of 15 years and above have the ability of reading and writing. Male literacy level stands at 95.6% while that of women is at 90.1%.
Life Expectancy and Fertility Rate
The life expectancy at birth for the total population stands at 71.9 years. On gender basis, its 74.59 years for females and 69.33 years for males (Jones, 2014). The living standards in the country are responsible for these statistics. It is believed that increased economic development will result to improved living standards hence prolonged life expectancy.
The fertility rate on the other hand stands at 2.2 children for every woman. Only family planning ideologies can help to contain this.
Urbanization and Net Migration Rate
By 2011, 50.7% of the population was already living in urban areas. The rate of urbanization has been estimated to be 2.45% between 2010 and 2015 (Nitisastro, 2013).
The net migration stands at -1.19 migrants per 1000 population. This is an indication that the number of people migrating from the country is high compared to the ones that are coming in. Most of the migrants move to developed countries through brain drain while others move in search of “greener pastures”.
Education and Health Expenditure
As at 2010, the education expenditure on the population stood at 3% of the GDP. Health expenditure on the other hand stood at 2.7% of the GDP
Millennium Development Goals and Economic Development
Indonesian government in conjunction with other stakeholders have been working towards enhancing Millennium Development Goals. These goals entail eradicating extreme poverty, reducing child mortality, promoting gender equality, attaining universal primary education, combating HIV/AIDs and other diseases, ensuring global partnership in development, improving maternal health and ensuring environmental sustainability.
Use of National Medium-Term Development Plan of 2004-2009 and 2010-2014 has contributed positively towards poverty eradication in Indonesia. This has helped the country surpass its target of halving the population of individuals living under $1 per day (Khan, 2013). This means there are improved living standards in the country. This has come about due to increased employment opportunities hence increased income for the citizens. The aspect represents an essence of economic development since people will have access to favourable health care and nutrition.
Millennium Development Goals have also helped in the fight against HIV/AIDs, malaria and other diseases. The government has taken the initiative to educate and create awareness to its citizens on this issue. There has been provision of free testing and counselling sessions for the HIV enigma. Provision of malaria drugs and other diseases has also been on the forefront. This has helped in minimising the death rates in the country. The aspect has ensured that the death rates on various workforces with high cognitive skills have reduced significantly. As a result, there is presence of many professionals with varied skills in the country. This helps in improving innovation and technological aspects which are key ingredients of economic development (Arifin, 2013).
Enhancing environmental sustainability has also ensured that resources such as land are not wasted or destroyed. This is because its supply is inelastic, and requires proper maintenance in order to sustain the increasing population (Wilkinson & Hulme, 2013).This has been vital for economic development since agricultural land has been preserved. It has helped in trying to enhance food security in the country.
Making it compulsory for all children to get education up to the 9th grade has also played a significant role in promoting economic development. They have the ability of attaining skills that they can use in future to earn them income. It also creates employment opportunities to teachers and other stakeholders involved in this sector. The literacy levels are also high hence creating a favourable environment for economic development. Male literacy level stands at 95.6%, while that of females is at 90.1% (Jones, 2014). These are favourable figures for a developing country.
References
Jones, G., 2014, Indonesia Demographics Profile 2013. Population Trends, 3(2), 5.
Nitisastro, W., 2013, Indonesia Population Trends. Jakarta: Equinox Pub..
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