Poverty in Indonesia: Around 34.4 Million Indonesians Live in Slums
According to data from Indonesia’s Ministry of Public Works there were 34.3 million Indonesians living in slums in August 2014. Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto stated that he wants the involvement of the Ministry of Housing, the National Development Planning Ministry (Bappenas), and the Ministry of Environment to resolve this issue. Currently, around 11.3 percent of the Indonesian population is poor. Head of Bappenas, Armida Alisjahbana, earlier stated to target to ease Indonesia’s poverty rate to 9-10 percent by 2015.
"In fact, the government alone is not enough. The poor people in the slums should also be supported by the business community, NGOs as well as academics," Kirmanto said in a written statement on Friday (03/10).
Indonesian Poverty and Inequality Statistics:
2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | |
Relative Poverty (% of population) |
16.0 | 17.8 | 16.6 | 15.4 | 14.2 | 13.3 | 12.5 | 11.7 | 11.5 |
Absolute Poverty (in millions) |
35 | 39 | 37 | 35 | 33 | 31 | 30 | 29 | 29 |
Gini Coefficient/ Gini Ratio |
0.36 | - | 0.35 | 0.35 | 0.37 | 0.38 | 0.41 | 0.41 | 0.41 |
Sources: World Bank and Statistics Indonesia
In Indonesia, there are 3,201 slum areas with a total size of 34,374 hectares. According to Kirmanto, there have already been plans designed to improve this area in a program that will run until 2019. The Indonesian government is optimistic that their slum reduction targets will be reached by 2019.
Several factors hamper slum eradication in Indonesia. For example the demographic bonus, climate change, and the ongoing process of decentralization. Indonesia has the fourth-largest population in the world (about 250 million people) and with a population growth rate of 1.2 percent per year, the government has difficulty of providing residential infrastructure (and residential land) for the people.
Further Reading:
• An Analysis of Poverty in Indonesia
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