Indonesia’s population expected to top 240 million in 2010 Census

Indonesian Digest


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The National Family Planning Board foresees that in this year’s census, Indonesia’s total population will surpass 240 million people, exceeding by 5 million the earlier forecast made in 1970 when Indonesia’s population in 2010 was estimated to reach 235 million, said Chairman of the Board, Syarief Sugiri.

His calculation was based on the fact that Indonesia’s population increased by 1.49% annually, higher than the government’s growth target of 1.3% per year. Whilst for 2015 the government dares to target growth at 1.1% only.

This rapid increase in population is due to the stagnant growth of family planning between 2000-2005, in which a demographic health survey in 2007 found that the average of rate of birth during these five years remained unchanged at 2.6. This corresponded with a low increase of only 1% in new contraceptives acceptors.

Sugiri warned that with the rapid growth of Indonesia’s population that far exceeded the target by more than 5 million, which is more than the total population of Singapore, the government must be prepared to increase food resources. With the assumption that one person needs a minimum of 100 kg of food per year, this means that the government must make available an addition of 300 million tons of food annually.

For this reason, the government will reactivate family planning campaigns by strengthening family planning institutions in the regions, so that by 2015, population growth can be suppressed to 1.1% per year.