Chinese Indonesians - Demographics

Demographics

Indonesia's 2000 census reported 2,411,503 citizens (1.20 percent of the total population) as ethnic Chinese. An additional 93,717 (0.05 percent) ethnic Chinese living in Indonesia were reported as foreign citizens, mostly those of the People's Republic of China and Republic of China, who may not be able to pay the cost of becoming an Indonesian citizen. Because the census employed the method of self-identification, those who refused to identify themselves as ethnic Chinese, or had assumed the identity of other ethnic groups, were recorded as non-Chinese. It is also likely that some did not identify themselves for fear of repercussions in the wake of anti-Chinese violence in 1998. According to data collected from the 2005 Intercensal Population Survey, the population slightly decreased to an estimated 2.31 million. The decline was attributed to falling fertility rates, an outflow of Chinese Indonesians to foreign countries, a growing segment of the population who did not consider themselves as ethnic Chinese, and possible underestimation because the data set was collected as a survey rather than a formal census.

Past estimates on the exact number of Chinese Indonesians relied on the 1930 Dutch East Indies census, which collected direct information on ethnicity. This census reported 1.23 million self-identified ethnic Chinese living in the colony, representing 2.03 percent of the total population, and was perceived to be an accurate account of the group's population. Ethnic information would not be collected again until the 2000 census and so was deduced from other census data, such as language spoken and religious affiliation, during the intermediate years. In an early survey of the Chinese Indonesian minority, anthropologist G. William Skinner estimated that between 2.3 million (2.4 percent) and 2.6 million (2.7 percent) lived in Indonesia in 1961. Former foreign minister Adam Malik provided a figure of 5 million in a report published in the Harian Indonesia daily in 1973. Many media and academic sources subsequently estimated between 4 and 5 percent of the total population as ethnic Chinese regardless of the year. Estimates during the 2000s have placed the figure between 6 and 7 million, and the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission of the Republic of China estimated a population as high as 7.67 million in 2006.

Approximately one-fifth of Chinese Indonesians lived in the capital city of Jakarta, located on the island of Java. When the island's other provinces—Banten, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, and East Java—are included, this population accounted for nearly half (45.92 percent) of all Chinese Indonesians. Outside of Java, the provinces of West Kalimantan, North Sumatra, Riau, the Bangka–Belitung Islands, and South Sumatra accounted for an additional 45.16 percent of the population. The Bangka–Belitung Islands had the highest local concentration of ethnic Chinese (11.75 percent of the province's population), followed by West Kalimantan (9.62 percent), Jakarta (5.83 percent), Riau (4.11 percent), and North Sumatra (3.07 percent). In each of the remaining provinces, Chinese Indonesians account for 1 percent or less of the provincial population. Most Chinese Indonesians in North Sumatra lived in the provincial capital of Medan, but they constituted only a small percentage because of the relatively large population of the province. Bangka–Belitung, West Kalimantan, and Riau are grouped around the hub of ethnic Chinese economic activity in Singapore and, with the exception of Bangka–Belitung, these settlements existed long before Singapore's founding in 1819.

The ethnic Chinese population in Indonesia grew by an average of 4.3 percent annually between 1920 and 1930. It then slowed owing to the effects of the Great Depression and many areas experienced a net emigration. Falling growth rates were also attributed to a significant decrease in the number of Chinese immigrants admitted into Indonesia since the 1950s. The population is relatively old according to the 2000 census, having the lowest percentage of population under 14 years old nationwide and the second-highest percentage of population over 65. Their population pyramid had a narrow base with a rapid increase until the 15–19 age group, indicating a rapid decline in total fertility rates. This was evidenced by a decline in the absolute number of births since 1980. In Jakarta and West Java the population peak occurred in the 20–24 age group, indicating that the decline in fertility rates began as early as 1975. The upper portion of the pyramid exhibited a smooth decline with increasing population age. It is estimated that 60.7 percent of the Chinese Indonesian population in 2000 constitute the generation which experienced political and social pressures under the New Order government. With an average life expectancy of 75 years, those who spent their formative years prior to this regime will completely disappear by 2032.