With more than 17,000 islands scattered along the equator, Indonesia is the largest group of islands—or archipelago—on Earth. It is home to 282 million people, making it the fourth most populated country in the world. Once prized in Europe as the “Spice Islands”, Indonesia has a history shaped by centuries of trade. Most of the country’s area is made up of the large, mountainous islands of Sumatra, Java and Sulawesi (Celebes), as well as large portions of the islands of Borneo and New Guinea. Among its many smaller islands are Bali, Lombok, Flores and Sumbawa. Lying on the Pacific Ring of Fire, Indonesia is home to nearly 150 volcanoes, and its islands are constantly at risk from volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. Much of Indonesia is covered by rainforest and has a tropical climate, with hot, humid weather all year round and a rainy season between November and March.

People

The island of Java, the world’s most populated island, is home to 55% of Indonesians. Indonesia is a multi-ethnic country, with around 360 different peoples and over 700 languages. Its two largest ethnic groups are the Javanese and Sundanese, both of whom are native to the island of Java.

Rural population

While Indonesia's huge, modern cities are developing quickly, some people, such as the Dani of western New Guinea, lead a lifestyle based on fishing and farming that has remained the same for thousands of years. In the countryside, many people still work as subsistence farmers, growing just enough rice to feed their families. New Guinea’s Korowai people, build their houses high in trees to protect them from attack by rival clans.

Economy

Large reserves of oil and gas were first discovered in Indonesia in 1871. Since independence in 1949, these industries have become more and more important. The country's largest oilfields are in eastern Sumatra, while most drilling for natural gas takes place in Sumatra and Kalimantan, the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo.
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Millions of Indonesians work in factories and processing plants on Java, making clothes, electrical goods and processed foods. Many of these goods are exported to Asian countries such as Japan, Singapore and China, as well as to the United States and Europe. Today, around half of Indonesians work in the service sector, in areas such as tourism, finance and communications.

Nickel

Indonesia is the largest nickel producer in the world, with around 1.6 million tonnes of nickel produced in 2022—nearly half of total world production. Nickel is used to manufacture lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and Indonesia aims to be a key supplier of nickel for the booming electric vehicle battery market. Most nickel mines and the largest production sites are located in the islands of Sulawesi and Halmahera, the largest of the Maluku islands.
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IMIP's activities have seriously polluted the local environment. Because the concentration of nickel in the nickel ore is very low, refining it to the quality required for use in batteries uses up a great deal of electrical power. This is supplied by new coal-fired power plants, which cause high levels of air pollution as well as carbon dioxide emissions. Runoff from IMIP—containing metals and chemicals—has contaminated rivers, destroyed fish populations and damaged forest ecosystems. 

Indonesia is—or was—covered by rainforest, but it has one of the highest rates of deforestation (cutting down forests) in the world. Just under half of the country’s original forests now remain. Many areas have been cleared by logging companies who sell the trees for timber and paper pulp. In place of rainforest trees are now plantations of palm trees, grown for palm oil. Indonesia produces around half of the world’s supply of palm oil, which is used to make a wide range of products including biodiesel, cooking oil, a wide variety of foods, soap and lipstick.

​​​​​​​Although the palm oil industry is an important source of income for Indonesia, the destruction of the forests has a disastrous impact on the lives of former villagers and wildlife. Orang-utans, found only in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra, are extremely endangered—only a few thousand remain in the wild.

Religions

Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims and Christians live—mostly peacefully—alongside each other in Indonesia. The majority of the population is Muslim, but Indonesia is not an Islamic state. All Indonesians are free to practise their own religion.

A history of trade and conquest has brought different waves of religious influences to Indonesia. Buddhism and Hinduism arrived in the islands between the 2nd and 4th centuries AD. By the 13th century, Islam had become more widespread. Spice traders from Portugal brought Catholicism to the islands in the 15th century, while Dutch settlers introduced Protestant Christianity a century later. Today, Indonesia’s eastern islands remain mainly Protestant.

Borobudur is still an important place of pilgrimage for Buddhists, who follow a path around the monument and up its stairways and corridors to the top. On the walls are 1460 bas-relief sculptures, depicting scenes of daily life in 8th-century Java. Pilgrims pass through three levels, each one symbolizing a different stage of the Buddhist creation story: Kamadhatu (the world of desire), Rupadhatu (the world of forms) and Arupadhatu (the world of formlessness).

Balinese Hindus

Around 10 million Hindus live in Indonesia. Most live on the island of Bali, or are Balinese people who have moved to other islands. Unlike Hindus in other countries such as India, Indonesia’s Hindus do not believe in a caste system, and do not focus as much on rebirth and reincarnation. They believe in the importance of the relationship between humans, God and nature, and hold great respect for the spirits of nature and of their ancestors.

Islam

Indonesia is home to over 245 million Muslims, nearly all of them Sunni. Most fall into one of two categories: traditionalists, who follow local religious leaders, and modernists, who hold more modern, Western and secular (non-religious) ideas alongside their beliefs.
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Arab traders introduced Islam to Indonesia at the end of the 13th century, and as the new religion became more popular, many Muslim kingdoms began to spring up. Islam soon replaced Buddhism and Hinduism as the islands’ main religion. The arrival of the Dutch in the 16th century pushed Muslim traders into rural areas, causing the spread of Islam far and wide across the islands. Today, over 90% of Indonesia’s population is Muslim; it has the largest Muslim population of any country in the world.

Dutch rule

Indonesia was ruled as a colony by the Netherlands for nearly 350 years. In 1602 the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, or VOC) was granted permission by the Dutch government to colonize, trade and rule what was then called Dutch East Indies. After the collapse of the VOC in 1799, the Dutch government took over governing the country.
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Under Dutch rule, Indonesia’s main islands were turned into huge plantations growing spices, coconuts and rubber. Enslaved people were forced to work in the fields. The capital, Batavia (now Jakarta), became a major trading port. Treated almost like slaves, indentured labourers from Java, Sumatra, China, Malaya and India worked on the plantations after slavery was abolished in 1860. Meanwhile, local farmers were forced to set aside their best land to growing cash crops for export such as indigo, coffee and sugar. This led to famine and disease among Javanese people, until the system was abolished in the 1870s.

Japanese forces seized control of the Dutch East Indies in 1942 during World War II. Following the Japanese surrender in 1945, Indonesian nationalist leaders Sukarno and Hatta declared independence, starting the Indonesian National Revolution. For the next four years, the Dutch fought to re-establish control. In 1949, the United States forced the Netherlands to transfer sovereignty to Indonesia. The Dutch turned over their last remaining possession, Western New Guinea, to Indonesia, in 1962.

Jakarta, capital city of Indonesia, was founded in the 4th century as Sunda Kelapa, an important trading port for the Sunda Kingdom. In the 16th century it came under the rule of the Banten Sultanate before the VOC (see above) took over in 1619. The Dutch renamed the port Batavia, after the Batavi, a Germanic tribe who were seen as the ancestors of the Dutch. Batavia became the centre of the VOC's trading network in Asia.
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​​​​​​​The city grew up on an area of low marshland around a sheltered bay. It had two centres: Oud Batavia, the oldest part, and Weltevreden, a newer district on higher ground to the south. By 1930, Batavia had more than 500,000 inhabitants, including 37,000 Europeans. On 5th March 1942 the city was captured by Japanese forces, who renamed it Jakarta. Indonesia became independent from Dutch rule in 1949 and Jakarta became the national capital the following year.

One of Jakarta's main challenges is flooding due to subsidence—some districts are sinking at around 25 centimetres (10 inches) a year—the result of the over-extraction of groundwater. At the same time, global warming is making extreme weather more common, causing storm surges and regular flooding. A ring dyke known as Giant Sea Wall Jakarta is under construction around Jakarta Bay to help counter the threat from rising sea levels.

Nusantara

Nusantara, a new city on the east coast of the island of Borneo, is intended to replace Jakarta as the national capital. Construction, which began in 2022, will be carried out in in five phases, beginning with the building of the Government Central Area zone, made up of government offices, schools and hospitals. Work is scheduled to be completed in 2045, by which time the city is expected to have 1.9 million inhabitants. The government hopes that the development of Nusantara (whose name in Old Javanese means "the outer islands") will ease the growth of Jakarta, which suffers from overcrowding, severe traffic congestion and ground subsidence (see above).
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Because Nusantara will be located nearer the centre of Indonesia’s archipelago, it is hoped that the country's wealth, currently concentrated on Java, will be spread more evenly across the country. Local people, including indigenous communities, are however being forced to move away to make room for new buildings and roads. Government planners claim that Nusantara is designed for sustainability and protecting the surrounding rainforest. The new city's electrical power will be drawn from renewable sources, and it is expected to be carbon neutral by 2045. However, environmental experts say the project is likely to cause the destruction of mangroves and rainforests, which are home to endangered species both in coastal waters and on land.

Facts about Indonesia

Population 282,477,584 (2024 estimate)

Area 1,919,440 sq km (741,050 sq miles)

Highest point Puncak Jaya 4884 m (16,024 ft)

Capital Jakarta (metro area population 41,900,000; city 11,350,328)

Other major cities Surabaya (3,017,382), Bandung (2,579,837), Medan (2,539,829), Bekasi (2,526,133)

Languages Indonesian (official language), Javanese, Sundanese, Madurese

Religions Muslim 87%, Christian 8%, Hindu 3%, other 2%

Ethnicity Javanese 42%, Sundanese 16%, Malay 3%, Batak 3%, Madurese 3%, Betawi 3%, Minangkabau 3%, others 27%

Currency Indonesian rupiah (IDR)

Chief exports Oil and gas, electrical appliances, plywood, textiles, rubber, palm oil