Country statistics

112 out of 193 in Human Development Index (UNDP, 2025) 

Average annual salary per person $4,810 (World Bank, 2023) 

19% of population live in urban slums (World Bank, 2025) 

Made up of 17,000 islands and spread across 1,904,569 square kilometres in South-East Asia, Indonesia is home to the world’s third most populous democracy of more than 270 million people and the world’s largest Muslim-majority population (CIA Factbook, 2025). 

Rapid urbanisation and rapid population growth, compounded by finite land availability are placing increasing pressure on the country, with 122,000 people estimated to be homeless and almost one in five people living in urban slums (World Population Review, 2025; World Bank, 2025). Within Indonesia, more than 23 million people are reportedly unable to obtain a nutritious food; malnutrition and the related effect of stunting affects more than 20% of children under 5 in the country (WFP, 2025). 

Indonesia is disaster-prone. 2149 events that included earthquakes, landslides, and flooding caused internal displacement of hundreds of thousands of the country’s dense population occurring between 2008 and 2023 (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2025). Violence stemming from nearby Papua, too, has caused internal displacement (Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2025). 

There are also an estimated 11,735 refugees and asylum-seekers from 52 countries (primarily Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Somalia) residing in Indonesia but considered homeless due to their lack of options for seeking permanent, safe residency in Indonesia or beyond (UNHCR, 2025). 30% of these asylum-seekers are children (UNHCR, 2025). Compounding these lack of options is the nearby Australia’s strict policies, which sees it refuse applications or send applicants offshore for detention.