Java set to remain population center

Java set to remain population center

JAKARTA (JP): Java, despite intensive transmigration programs,
will remain the country's most populated island with 58 percent
of the population by 2004, according to a new report.

Population density of the island, which makes up just 6.6
percent of Indonesian territory, will rise from 938 per square
kilometer to 1,000. The rest of the country has a population
density of about 50 people per square kilometer.

A report on population growth by the Central Bureau of
Statistics, presented here yesterday to President Soeharto by
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare and Poverty
Eradication Haryono Suyono, said 81 percent of the population
would reside in the western part of Indonesia -- Sumatra, Java
and Bali -- comprising less than 32 percent of the country's land
mass.

The report was made as a projection of population growth
during the Seventh Five-Year Development Program (Pelita VII)
which runs from 1999 to 2004.

The report said the population was expected to increase by
over 23 million to reach 225.7 million by 2005, with West, East
and Central Java continuing to be the most populated provinces.
The population currently stands at about 202.1 million.

The most populated provinces are located in the western part
of Indonesia: West Java with 46.9 million, East Java 37.1
million, Central Java 33.1 million, North Sumatra 13.1 million
and Jakarta 10.3 million. In the 1990 population census, Java's
population, including Yogyakarta, was 107.7 million.

The least populated areas by 2005 are predicted to be East
Timor with one million residents, Bengkulu 1.8 million, and
Southeast Sulawesi and Central Kalimantan with two million each.

Population growth is expected to decrease from 1.5 percent
annually in the 1995/2000 period to 1.25 in the first five years
of the new century.

Based on age, the report said Indonesia still had a "young
population", due mainly to the high fertility rate in past years.
But the age makeup will move upward slightly as the young
generation ages.

Those included in the productive age bracket, between 15 and
59 years, will increase during Pelita VII, from 124.8 million to
138.3 million, an increase of about 2.7 million annually and of
which men will comprise 1.4 million.

Despite dire economic hardships faced by Indonesians today,
life expectancy is predicted to increase from 64.7 years to 67.9.

Males, while increasing their life expectancy from 62.8 to
65.9, can still expect to be outlived by women, who will boost
their life expectancy from 66.7 to nearly 70. (prb)