TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Wide poverty disparity between regions
The figures vary between 3.4 percent in Jakarta and 27.2 percent in Papua.
Change Size
Floating playground: Children play around the ship as it is anchored at Manokwari port in West Papua.
(JP/Jerry Adiguna)
A
total of 26 million Indonesians (9.8 percent) were living in poverty as of March this year, according to the latest data issued by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). This indicates a decrease of about 1.7 million people year-on-year.
Although there is an improvement, the figures hide the wide disparity of poverty between regions in the country. The figures vary between 3.4 percent in Jakarta and 27.2 percent in Papua.
In Sumatra, poverty has decreased in all provinces, with West Sumatra having the most notable reduction in its poverty rate. However, in some large provinces such as South Sumatra and Lampung, poverty rates are well above the national average, most probably as a result of the long-depressed prices of rubber and coffee, the main commodities of those provinces. Aceh has the highest poverty rate in Sumatra at 16 percent.
Jakarta has the lowest poverty rate at 3.4 percent, the lowest in the country, although the absolute number of poor people has increased. This is because industrial and infrastructure development and the high rate of urbanization in Jakarta have led to an explosion in the middle class, the growth of which has outpaced that of the city’s poor.
