Poverty in Indonesia: Around 34.4 Million Indonesians Live in Slums

"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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