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Foreword At present the population of Indonesia is the fourth largest in the world, after China, India and the United States of America. The last population census during the colonial period took place in 1930. The first population census in independent Indonesia was conducted in 1961, followed by censuses in 1971, 1980, 1990 and 2000. These population censuses carried out every ten years provided a wealth of information on the size, composition, growth and other features of the Indonesian population as well as the population of different regions and islands. The richness of information drawn from the results of these censuses during a forty-year period enable many studies and analyses, carried out by Indonesian as well as foreign demographers, to arrive at a better understanding of many features of Indonesia’s past, present and future populations. Some of the most important changing characteristics of Indonesia’s population throughout these decades relate to growth and age composition. While during the early years of independence the population of Indonesia grew more rapidly, present population data indicate a rapidly declining rate of population growth. Similarly, the age composition of Indonesia’s population shows a contrasting picture: a high dependency of the young-aged during the early decades of independence as against a growing old-aged dependency in recent years. The significant features of declining rates of growth and changing age composition are related to the rapid decline in fertility — as against a rapid decline in mortality. These developments are clearly linked to the increased awareness of capabilities and opportunities of limiting and spacing of births. In turn, this important awareness is a consequence of many developments in Indonesian society, in particular the rapid progress of the education of young women in rural as well as urban© 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore areas. Indeed, one of the most important — if not the most important — investments in developing countries is the rapid spread of quality education among young women. It has a big impact not only on declines of fertility and infant mortality, but also on their rapidly increasing ability to join the labour force. While the population censuses between 1961 and 1990 provide rich information of changing features of the population of Indonesia and its society, there is one feature that was lacking in these censuses: the ethnic composition of the population of Indonesia. As the fourth largest population among nations of the world, spread among so many islands and regions, Indonesia is well-known for its diversity in terms of ethnic composition. But there was no information on the ethnic composition of Indonesia’s population because this feature was not included in the population censuses from 1961 to 1990. The population census of the year 2000 was the first to include information on ethnic composition. It is indeed very heartening, therefore, that Professor Aris Ananta, a prominent demographer-economist from Indonesia, together with his colleagues Professor Leo Suryadinata and Dr Evi Nurvidya Arifin, took up the task to analyse the data on the ethnic composition of Indonesia’s population as derived from the population census of the year 2000 and provide comparisons with the only available earlier data from the population census of 1930. Undoubtedly, this important study will encourage demographers and other social scientists to take up the challenge of further analysing the population census data of the year 2000 on ethnic composition as well as other features. Professor Widjojo Nitisastro Professor of Economics (retired) University of Indonesia Jakarta FOREWORD XVII© 2003 Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore ...

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