RI's population now 202.5 million

JAKARTA (JP): The National Family Planning Board has claimed the estimated population of 202,535,145 on New Year's Day goes a long way to debunk dire predictions of Malthusian population increases made 30 years ago.

The nation reached the 200 million population mark on Feb. 4 last year, a milestone celebrated with the designation of several babies as 200th million citizens, among them a baby boy in West Nusa Tenggara whom President Soeharto named Wahyu Nusantara Aji.

In a statement Wednesday, board chairman Haryono Suyono judged the current population figure an impressive achievement, as experts had predicted 280 million citizens by the turn of the century. The family planning program was launched in 1969.

Haryono, who is also State Minister of Population, said the population growth rate dropped below 1.6 percent in 1997.

The average number of children in a family has dropped from six 30 years ago to 2.6 today. Concurrently, the infant mortality rate has dropped from 145 in every 1,000 births to between 50 and 55, he said.

Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation in the world, according to United Nations projections, after China (1.249 billion), India (953 million) and the United States (263.6 million).

Haryono said the government would soon conduct a nationwide census on family welfare to identify Indonesian families living below the poverty line.

He said the census, which is expected to cover 42 million families, will run for three months beginning this month.

The minister said the information collected would be used by the government to reallocate its aid packages to least developed villages.

Haryono told the media last month that Rp 60 million (US$10,900) in working capital would be allocated to each of the villages over three years. (10)