Cak Imin: Extreme Poverty Population in Indonesia Drops to 2.2 Million People

Coordinating Minister for Human Development and Culture (Menko PM) Muhaimin Iskandar, or Cak Imin, highlighted the achievements in tackling extreme poverty. He stated that the number of people living in extreme poverty in Indonesia has decreased during the 2024-2025 period.

This was conveyed by Cak Imin while leading the ministerial-level evaluation meeting on extreme poverty alleviation, held at the BP Jamsostek building in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Monday (27/4/2026). During that period, Cak Imin noted that the extreme poverty figure dropped from 3.56 million to 2.2 million.

“Alhamdulillah, extreme poverty has successfully decreased from 1.26 percent in March 2024 to 0.78 percent in September 2025. Around 0.48 percent of the extreme poor population has moved up. Let’s give a round of applause. Thus, our extreme poor population now stands at 2.2 million people, down from the previous 3.56 million,” said Cak Imin.

Cak Imin stated that this achievement deserves gratitude. Nevertheless, he emphasised that the state still has homework to eradicate the remaining 2.2 million people classified as extremely poor.

“This is something to be grateful for, while we still have a remaining obligation of 2.2 million from the previous 3.56 million people,” he added.

He explained that the success in reducing extreme poverty was achieved through joint efforts across ministries, institutions, and agencies. Several programmes from ministries, institutions, and agencies have contributed to lowering the extreme poverty rate.

According to Cak Imin, one of the programmes that helped reduce extreme poverty in Indonesia is social assistance, which has reached 8.56 million poor families, or about 93.6 percent of the total targets. He also mentioned that so far, 2 million people have been involved in the Padat Karya programme from Menko PM.

In the UMKM sector, Cak Imin said that 2 million new debtors have accessed funding. Additionally, 111,000 migrant workers have been facilitated to work properly.

In the agrarian reform sector, 28,000 families have received assistance. Similarly, in infrastructure and basic services, 99.4 percent of sub-districts now have Puskesmas, 82.3 percent of villages have basic education services, and 89 percent of sub-districts have secondary education services.

“10,171 housing units have been renovated and built through BSPS in 219 cities/regencies. 514 cooperative managers and 9,404 village/sub-district Merah Putih cooperative assistants have received training. The National Priority Programme (MBG) has reached 60.2 million beneficiaries,” he explained.

Meanwhile, in the education sector, 61.9 million people have been affected by education programmes, and 166 Sekolah Rakyat have been operational with 14,963 students from poor families.

Cak Imin conveyed that from the various efforts to reduce extreme poverty, the budget allocated from the APBN amounts to Rp503.2 trillion and from the APBD Rp129 trillion.

“Those are the steps we have taken and successfully met the targets. We will continue to work hard for the 0 percent target in 2026 and a maximum of 5 percent in 2029,” he concluded.