Indonesia's Population: Ethnicity and Religion in a Changing Political Landscape

Chapter 1. Population Change and Continuity: A Breakthrough in Ethnic Information

1 Population Change and Continuity A Breakthrough in Ethnic Information 1.1 Size, Growth, and Distribution of Population The Indonesian population is the fourth largest in the world, after China, India, and the United States of America. In 2000 there were 205.8 million people, more than threefold the number in 1930. The population thus increased at an average annual rate of growth of 1.78% during the period 1930–2000. However, the growth rate had initially increased from 1.60% annually in 1930–61 to 2.06% in 1961–71 peaking at 2.37% in 1971–80. It then declined to 1.96% in 1980–90 and 1.37% in 1990–2000. Table 1.1.1 presents the Indonesian population in terms of the number and percentage for Indonesia as a whole. The Population of Indonesia. Results of the 2000 Population Census (Badan Pusat Statistik 2001a) has also provided information on the number of people whom the BPS (Central Board of Statistics) could access but could not obtain any information about them. These are termed “non-responses”. There were 2,283,981 non-responses, or 1.11% of the total population. Furthermore, in a few provinces with internal conflict (Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam, Central Sulawesi, Maluku, North Maluku, and Papua) there were some people the BPS could not access at all. Therefore, the BPS has had to estimate this number. The “estimated number” of people 1© 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore Reproduced from Indonesia’s Population: Ethnicity and Religion in a Changing Political Landscape, by Leo Suryadinata, Evi Nurvidya Arifin and Aris Ananta (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003). This version was obtained electronically direct from the publisher on condition that copyright is not infringed. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. Individual articles are available from 2 INDONESIA’S POPULATION© 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore who cannot be accessed at all for the whole of Indonesia is 2,317,216 or 1.13% of the total population. For example, the census in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam was an extremely difficult task. The BPS has estimated that 51.43% of the population in the province could not be accessed at all, while 4.42% could be accessed but the BPS could not obtain information about them. As a result, the BPS could only obtain information from 44.15% of the total population in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam. It should be borne in mind that the numbers of estimated population and non-responses vary by the province (shown in Table 1.1.2). Jambi and East Java, for example, have no estimated and nonresponse population. Without the non-responses and estimated number, the total population of Indonesia in 2000 was 201,241,999. Further discussion in this book is based on this number, by excluding the estimated and nonresponse population, as there is no information at all from these. As an illustration, it is not possible to know how many non-response and estimated population are Indonesian citizens. The number of Indonesian citizens and foreigners in Table 1.1.1 can be larger depending on how many of the non-response and estimated number are Indonesian citizens. Among the recorded foreigners, the majority (62.58%) is Chinese, followed by Arab (6.72%) and U.K. citizens (5.77%). “Others” forms 24.93%, consisting of many small numbers of different nationalities. The published data on ethnicity covers Indonesian citizens only, but the data published by the BPS on religion does not differentiate between Indonesian citizens and foreigners. As a result, all discussions on religious composition in this book include the religions of the foreigners. However, as the percentage of foreigners is insignificant, only 0.07%, the inclusion of foreigners does not affect the picture of religious composition among Indonesian citizens. TABLE 1.1.1 Classification of Number of Population: Indonesia, 2000 Population Number Percentage Indonesian citizens 201,092,238 97.69 Foreigners 149,761 0.07 Estimated number 2,317,216 1.13 Non-responses 2,283,981 1.11 Total Population 205,843,196 100.00 Source: Compiled and calculated from Tables 01 and 08.9, Population of Indonesia. Results of the 2000 Population Census. Series L.2.2 (Jakarta: Badan Pusat Statistik, 2001a). POPULATION CHANGE AND CONTINUITY 3© 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore TABLE 1.1.2 Distribution of Population by...