Demography will remain one of the toughest challenges for Indonesia’s future. The silent nature of demographic pressures, however, makes the general public unaware of its profound impacts, economically and politically. Managing demographic pressures requires a proper understanding of demographic characteristics and their interplay with other variables.



The most noticeable characteristics of Indonesia’s demography are its large size and its uneven distribution between Java and other islands. In the past, reducing population growth through family planning programs was considered a success, especially during the New Order period.



Efforts to reduce the uneven distribution through various programs of relocating people from Java to other islands, however, only had very limited results.



Widjojo Nitisastro, the main architect of economic development under Soeharto’s...