BPS Affirms National Poverty Data Remains the Benchmark for Social Assistance
The Indonesian Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has emphasised that national poverty data remains the primary reference for policy formulation, including the distribution of social assistance (bansos), rather than the poverty figures provided by the World Bank.
This clarification follows a significant discrepancy between the two sets of poverty data. As previously reported, BPS released the national poverty rate for March 2026 at 8.07%.
In contrast, based on the classification for Upper-Middle-Income Countries, the World Bank estimates that 64.1% of the Indonesian population lives below the poverty line using a standard of US$8.30 PPP, or approximately Rp51,087 per person per day.
BPS asserted that while national and international poverty definitions are intentionally different to serve their respective purposes, the metrics established by BPS are the most relevant for monitoring progress and formulating national economic and development policies, including social assistance.
“The national poverty line is established by the government and is specific to each country’s respective context. This line is used as the basis for national policy and to monitor progress in poverty alleviation efforts,” stated an official explanation from BPS alongside the World Bank.
According to BPS benchmarks, the national poverty rate decreased from 8.47% in March 2025 to 8.07% in March 2026. This data serves as the government’s basis for evaluating the effectiveness of social protection programmes, including social assistance.
Why is there such a large discrepancy in the data?
BPS explained that both BPS and the World Bank utilise the National Socio-Economic Survey (Susenas) as a data source. However, they measure poverty using different methods and for different objectives.
BPS measures poverty based on the real cost of living in Indonesia, calculating the minimum expenditure required for an individual to meet food needs and other basic necessities such as housing, clothing, and transport across 75 urban and rural areas in every province, updated twice a year to reflect price changes. In March 2026, the BPS poverty line was recorded at Rp669,235 per person per month, or approximately US$3.60 per day.
Meanwhile, the World Bank uses a uniform international poverty line to compare living standards between countries, rather than a poverty line based on the specific prices and consumption patterns of a single nation. The World Bank employs three benchmarks according to country income groups:
US$3.00 per day (Rp18,465) for low-income countries
US$4.20 per day (Rp25,851) for lower-middle-income countries
US$8.30 per day (Rp51,087) for upper-middle-income countries
This does not mean the population is becoming poorer
BPS emphasised that the surge in the World Bank’s figure is not a reflection of worsening living conditions, but rather a consequence of Indonesia’s upgraded status. When Indonesia transitioned to an upper-middle-income country in 2023, the World Bank automatically raised the poverty threshold applied to Indonesia from US$4.20 to US$8.30 per person per day.
“With a higher threshold, it naturally causes more people to fall below it; this does not mean they have become poorer,” the BPS explanation noted.
The US$8.30 standard reflects the living standards of a very broad group of upper-middle-income countries—including nations with per capita incomes up to nearly three times that of Indonesia—thus setting a much higher standard than the actual domestic conditions.
Both methods also treat price changes differently over time. BPS adjusts its poverty line to follow changes in domestic consumption patterns and living standards, whereas the World Bank applies a relatively fixed international standard that is only adjusted for inflation.
As a global comparison, World Bank estimates for 2025 also show that 3.7% of the Indonesian population is in extreme poverty, and 15.5% are below the poverty line for lower-middle-income countries—before the figure jumps to 64.1% when using the upper-middle-income standard.
BPS concluded its explanation by asserting that both poverty measures use the same underlying data but address different questions.
“One measure is not more ‘correct’ than the other; both have different purposes and provide complementary perspectives on poverty alleviation efforts in Indonesia,” BPS stated.