This article is about the country. For other uses, see Indonesia (disambiguation).
Republic of Indonesia
Republik Indonesia (Indonesian)
Flag
National emblem
Motto:
Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Old Javanese)
"Unity in Diversity"
Anthem: Indonesia Raya
"Indonesia the Great"
Duration: 1 minute and 50 seconds.1:50
National ideology:
Pancasila
(lit. 'Five principles')
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all
Capital Jakarta
and largest city
6°10′S 106°49′E
Official Indonesian
language
Regional Over 700 languages[1]
languages
Ethnic groups Over 1,300 ethnic groups[2]
87.06% Islam
Religion
86.06% Sunni
(2023) 1% Shia, others
10.47% Christianity
7.41% Protestant
3.06% Catholic
1.68% Hinduism
0.71% Buddhism
0.08% Folk, Confucianism,
and Others[3][a]
Demonym(s) Indonesian
Government Unitary presidential republic
• President Joko Widodo
• Vice President Ma'ruf Amin
• House Speaker Puan Maharani
• Chief Justice Muhammad Syarifuddin
Legislature People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR)
• Upper house Regional Representative
Council (DPD)
• Lower house People's Representative
Council (DPR)
Independence
from the Netherlands
• Proclaimed 17 August 1945
• Recognised 27 December 1949
Area
• Total 1,904,569[4] km2 (735,358 sq mi)
(14th)
• Water (%) 4.85
Population
• 2023 civil 280.725.438[5] (4th)
registration
estimate
• 2020 census 270,203,917[6]
• Density 143/km2 (370.4/sq mi) (90th)
GDP (PPP) 2024 estimate
• Total $4.721 trillion[7] (7th)
• Per capita $16,861[7] (96th)
GDP (nominal) 2024 estimate
• Total $1.476 trillion[7] (16th)
• Per capita $5,271[7] (114th)
Gini (2022) 37.9[8]
medium
HDI (2022) 0.713[9]
high (112th)
Currency Indonesian rupiah (Rp) (IDR)
Time zone UTC+7 to +9 (various)
Date format DD/MM/YYYY
Driving side left
Calling code +62
ISO 3166 code ID
Internet TLD .id
Indonesia,[b] officially the Republic of Indonesia,[c] is a country in Southeast
Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000
islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guinea.
Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and the 14th-largest country by area,
at 1,904,569 square kilometres (735,358 square miles). With over 280 million people,
Indonesia is the world's fourth-most-populous country and the most populous Muslim-
majority country. Java, the world's most populous island, is home to more than half of
the country's population.
Indonesia is a presidential republic with an elected legislature. It has 38 provinces, of
which nine have special autonomous status. The country's capital, Jakarta, is the
world's second-most-populous urban area. Indonesia shares land borders with Papua
New Guinea, East Timor, and the eastern part of Malaysia, as well as maritime
borders with Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and India.
Despite its large population and densely populated regions, Indonesia has vast areas of
wilderness that support one of the world's highest levels of biodiversity.
The Indonesian archipelago has been a valuable region for trade since at least the
seventh century when the Srivijaya and later Majapahit Kingdoms engaged in
commerce with entities from mainland China and the Indian subcontinent. Over the
centuries, local rulers assimilated foreign influences, leading to the flourishing
of Hindu and Buddhist kingdoms. Sunni traders and Sufi scholars later brought Islam,
and European powers fought one another to monopolise trade in the Spice Islands
of Maluku during the Age of Discovery. Following three and a half centuries of Dutch
colonialism, Indonesia secured its independence after World War II. Indonesia's history
has since been turbulent, with challenges posed by natural disasters, corruption,
separatism, a democratisation process, and periods of rapid economic growth.
Indonesia consists of thousands of distinct native ethnic and hundreds
of linguistic groups, with Javanese being the largest. A shared identity has developed
with the motto "Bhinneka Tunggal Ika" ("Unity in Diversity" literally, "many, yet one"),
defined by a national language, cultural diversity, religious pluralism within a Muslim-
majority population, and a history of colonialism and rebellion against it. The economy
of Indonesia is the world's 16th-largest by nominal GDP and the 7th-largest by PPP. It is
the world's third-largest democracy, a regional power, and is considered a middle
power in global affairs. The country is a member of several multilateral organisations,
including the United Nations, World Trade Organization, G20, and a founding member
of the Non-Aligned Movement, Association of Southeast Asian Nations, East Asia
Summit, D-8, APEC, and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.
Etymology
Further information: Names of Indonesia
The region that is today identified as Indonesia has carried different names, such as "East Indies"
in this 1855 map.
The name Indonesia derives from the Greek words Indos (Ἰνδός) and nesos (νῆσος),
meaning "Indian islands".[12] The name dates back to the 19th century, far predating the
formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an
English ethnologist, proposed the terms Indunesians—and, his
preference, Malayunesians—for the inhabitants of the "Indian Archipelago or Malay
Archipelago".[13][14] In the same publication, one of his students, James Richardson
Logan, used Indonesia as a synonym for Indian Archipelago.[15][16] Dutch academics
writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use Indonesia. They preferred Malay
Archipelago (Dutch: Maleische Archipel); the Netherlands East Indies (Nederlandsch
Oost Indië), popularly Indië; the East (de Oost); and Insulinde.[17]
After 1900, Indonesia became more common in academic circles outside the
Netherlands, and native nationalist groups adopted it for political expression.[17] Adolf
Bastian of the University of Berlin popularized the name through his book Indonesien
oder die Inseln des Malayischen Archipels, 1884–1894. The first native scholar to use
the name was Ki Hajar Dewantara when in 1913, he established a press bureau in the
Netherlands, Indonesisch Pers-bureau.[14]
