Indonesia's Poverty Rate Differs Greatly Between World Bank and BPS Versions, Here's Why

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia - Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has explained the significant difference in poverty figures compared to those from the World Bank. The World Bank records more than 60.3% of Indonesia’s population, or the equivalent of 171.8 million people, living below the poverty line.

Meanwhile, BPS reveals that Indonesia’s poverty rate as of September 2025 stands at 8.25%, or approximately 23.36 million people. To understand this difference, here is a complete explanation of the calculation methods used by BPS and the World Bank.

Director of National Resilience Statistics at BPS RI, Nurma Midayanti, stated that the cause of the differing poverty figures is the variation in statistical methodologies.

“The World Bank’s methodology is very different, and when compared to the figures calculated and released by BPS, it doesn’t align because the methodologies differ,” she said during a presentation at the Workshop for Journalists on Utilising Strategic BPS Data at the BPS Building in Jakarta on Tuesday (21/4/2026).

Nurma highlighted a significant difference: Indonesia falls into the upper-middle-income country category. Indonesia recorded a Gross National Income (GNI) or Gross National Product (GNP) of US$4,580 in 2023. Meanwhile, Bank Indonesia classifies countries in the upper-middle-income group as ranging from US$4,516 to US$14,005.

Nurma explained that the GNI standard for upper-middle-income countries has a wide range, so Indonesia, which is at the lower boundary of this group, is equated with countries that have much higher GNI. However, according to Nurma, Indonesia would be more appropriately classified as a lower-middle-income country.

“(Indonesia) is actually still more suitable, from a poverty perspective, to be in the lower-middle-income country category. It’s closer to that. So this is something that media friends need to understand and emphasise when reporting that Indonesia has entered the upper-middle-income country status; in reality, it is at the lower boundary, almost at the lower line,” Nurma clarified.

The World Bank itself uses three approaches or poverty line standards to monitor global poverty reduction and compare poverty levels between countries: the international poverty line for calculating extreme poverty (US$2.15 per capita per day), US$3.65 per capita per day for lower-middle-income countries, and US$6.85 per capita per day for upper-middle-income countries.

These three poverty lines are expressed in US$ PPP or purchasing power parity, a conversion method that adjusts purchasing power between countries. The dollar value used is not the current exchange rate but rather purchasing power parity. US$1 PPP in 2024 is equivalent to Rp5,993.03.

She also explained that the World Bank’s interest is to create a method that allows comparisons between countries, which differs from Indonesia’s approach.

“So the World Bank’s calculations are actually very different from BPS’s, which uses the basic needs approach I explained earlier. But the purpose is to equalise purchasing power between countries so that comparisons can be made between countries. The World Bank calculates how much poverty there is in Indonesia, how much in Malaysia, how much in Thailand. And the calculations for domestic purposes in each country can vary,” she said.