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Working age population surge ‘may be blessing or boomerang’
The UN's 2019 World Population Prospects report projected that the global population would reach 9.7 billion people by 2050 from 7.7 billion in mid-2019, with Indonesia placed eighth out of the countries expected to contribute most to the increase.
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Hundreds of youngsters line up to apply for jobs with one of the participants at a job fair in West Java.
(Tribun Jabar/Gani Kurniawan)
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mid the government's efforts to suppress population growth, the latest report by the United Nations suggests that Indonesia will remain among the nine countries to host more than half of the projected two billion increase in the global population between 2019 and 2050. The projection raises questions as to whether the country will be able to make the most out of the surge.
The UN's 2019 World Population Prospects report projected that the global population would reach 9.7 billion people by 2050 from 7.7. billion in mid-2019, with Indonesia placed eighth out of the countries expected to contribute most to the increase, with 60 million people. India ranked first with its estimated 273 million contribution.
The report comes amid efforts by the Indonesian government, specifically by the National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN), to reduce the country's population growth to 1.06 percent by 2020 from the current 1.2 percent.
BKKBN acting deputy head of population control Dwi Listyawardhani said such an estimation was only normal given the country's large population, noting that the report had projected Indonesia to no longer be listed in the world's five most populous countries in 2050.
The report suggested that Pakistan would replace Indonesia as the fourth most populous country, a title that the latter had held since 1990. Indonesia is expected to host 331 million people in 2050 from 271 million currently.
"This is a good sign that we can maintain the rate [of our population growth] by reducing our fertility rate, as compared to other countries," Dwi told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
The government aims to reduce the country's total fertility rate (TFR) to 2.1 by 2025 from 2.4 in 2017. The TFR refers to the average number of children born to a woman aged between 15 and 49 years old.
