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Indonesia

Asia

To which language should you translate to localize in Indonesia?

What we know from our community

As one of the largest multilingual countries in the world, the linguistic landscape in Indonesia is extremely diverse and complex with many languages coexisting and influencing one another. Thus the existence of “Bahasa Indonesia” (which literally means “Indonesian language”) that serves as a unifying force for the country. It is estimated that around 85-90% of the population speaks Indonesian. It is used as the official language in education, government, and media.

But when it comes to how many Indonesians speak Bahasa Indonesia as their first language, the answer would be only less than a quarter of the population speak Indonesian as their primary language. It’s quite hard to give an exact percentage of language usage in Indonesia, since it’s a vast country and the language usage can vary greatly from region to region. In some areas, local languages are widely spoken, while in other areas, they may be used primarily in the home or in certain social contexts. And yet, most people speak their local languages as their mother tongue. In other words, many Indonesians are trilingual.

LANGUAGE INSIGHT

Official language

Bahasa Indonesia – Variant of the Malay language (12.1%; 34.02 mln)

Actual languages

Javanese (39.4%; 110.78 mln), Sunda (15.8%; 44.42 mln), Malay (12.1%; 34.02 mln), Madura (4.3%; 12.09 mln), Bugi (2.2%; 6.18 mln), Batak (2.1%; 5.90 mln), Banja (1.8%; 5.06 mln), Minangkabau (1.7%; 4.78 mln), Balinesian (1.4%; 3.93 mln), Chinese (0.4%; 1.12 mln), Papuan languages (0.1%; 281k), other (18.7%; 52.5 mln).

What the top 150 best localized websites in the world do in Indonesia

(Top 150 websites listed in the Global by Design ranking – published annually by Byte Level Research, this report provides a list of globally localized websites, showcasing best practices and emerging trends in their globalization)

  • 67/150 localize by translating into Bahasa Indonesia
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into Bahasa Indonesia and Simplified Chinese
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into Bahasa Indonesia, Simplified Chinese, Hakka, Sindhi, Teochew and Indonesian Sign Language
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into Bahasa Indonesia, French and Simplified Chinese
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into Bahasa Indonesia, French, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, German, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Turkish, Russian Japanese, Thai and Ukrainian
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into both French and Simplified Chinese
  • 1/150 localizes by translating into Simplified Chinese
  • Localization not available 3M
  • Localization not available ABB
  • Localization not available Accenture
  • Localization available Adidas
  • Localization available Adobe
  • Localization available Airbnb
  • Localization not available Aldi
  • Localization not available Amazon
  • Localization not available American Airlines
  • Localization available American Express
  • Localization available Apple
  • Localization not available Audi
  • Localization not available Autodesk
  • Localization not available Avis
  • Localization available Bayer
  • Localization not available BMW
  • Localization available Booking.com
  • Localization available Bosch
  • Localization available British Airways
  • Localization available Bumble
  • Localization not available Burberry
  • Localization not available BYD
  • Localization available Canon
  • Localization not available Capgemini
  • Localization not available Cartier
  • Localization not available Caterpillar
  • Localization not available Chevrolet
  • Localization available Cisco Systems
  • Localization not available Citibank
  • Localization available Coca-Cola
  • Localization not available Costco
  • Localization not available Dell
  • Localization not available Deloitte
  • Localization not available Delta
  • Localization not available DHL
  • Localization not available Disney+
  • Localization available Dyson
  • Localization not available eBay
  • Localization not available Eli Lilly
  • Localization available Emirates
  • Localization not available Ernst & Young
  • Localization available Facebook
  • Localization available FedEx
  • Localization available Ford
  • Localization not available Four Seasons
  • Localization not available Fujifilm
  • Localization not available GE
  • Localization available Gillette
  • Localization available GoDaddy
  • Localization available Google
  • Localization not available Gucci
  • Localization not available Haier
  • Localization not available Heineken
  • Localization not available Hermès
  • Localization available Hertz
  • Localization available Hilton
  • Localization available Hisense
  • Localization available Hitachi
  • Localization not available Honda
  • Localization available Hotels.com
  • Localization available HP
  • Localization not available HP Enterprise
  • Localization not available HSBC
  • Localization not available Huawei
  • Localization not available Hyatt
  • Localization available Hyundai
  • Localization available IBM
  • Localization available IKEA
  • Localization available Intel
  • Localization available InterContinental Hotels
  • Localization not available J&J
  • Localization not available Jack Daniel's
  • Localization available Jehovah’s Witnesses
  • Localization not available John Deere
  • Localization not available Kellogg's
  • Localization not available Kia
  • Localization not available KPMG
  • Localization available L'Oréal
  • Localization not available Land Rover
  • Localization available LEGO
  • Localization not available Lenovo
  • Localization not available Lexus
  • Localization available LG
  • Localization available Louis Vuitton
  • Localization available Lululemon
  • Localization not available LUSH
  • Localization available Marriott
  • Localization available MasterCard
  • Localization available McDonald's
  • Localization not available Mercedes-Benz
  • Localization available Merck
  • Localization available Microsoft
  • Localization available Mitsubishi Electric
  • Localization available Nestlé
  • Localization not available Netflix
  • Localization not available Nike
  • Localization not available Nikon
  • Localization not available Nintendo
  • Localization not available Nio
  • Localization available Nissan
  • Localization available NIVEA
  • Localization not available Oracle
  • Localization available Pampers
  • Localization available Panasonic
  • Localization available PayPal
  • Localization not available Pepsi
  • Localization available Pfizer
  • Localization available Philips
  • Localization not available Pitney Bowes
  • Localization not available Porsche
  • Localization available Procter & Gamble
  • Localization not available PWC
  • Localization not available Revolut
  • Localization available Rolex
  • Localization not available Royal Caribbean
  • Localization not available Salesforce
  • Localization available Samsung
  • Localization not available Sanofi
  • Localization not available SAP
  • Localization available Sephora
  • Localization not available Shopify
  • Localization not available Siemens
  • Localization available Sony
  • Localization available Spotify
  • Localization available Starbucks
  • Localization not available Steelcase
  • Localization not available Stripe
  • Localization available Subaru
  • Localization not available Tesla
  • Localization available The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
  • Localization not available Tiffany
  • Localization available Tinder
  • Localization available Toshiba
  • Localization available Toyota
  • Localization available TripAdvisor
  • Localization not available Uber
  • Localization not available United Airlines
  • Localization not available UPS
  • Localization available Visa
  • Localization not available Volkswagen
  • Localization available Volvo Cars
  • Localization not available Vrbo
  • Localization not available Walmart
  • Localization not available Western Union
  • Localization available Wikipedia
  • Localization available Wise
  • Localization available WordPress
  • Localization not available Workday
  • Localization not available Xerox
  • Localization available Xiaomi (Mi)
  • Localization available Zara
  • Localization available Zoom
Available in

If you need others information, below you can find a selection of economic/social/cultural data

Overview


Language

Official language
Indonesian 29%

Secondary languages
Javanese 52%, Sundanese 19%

T-index
1%

T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales.

Other languages
More than 700 living languages are spoken in Indonesia

English
Low proficiency (EF) – 80 of 116 countries/regions in the world- 12/23 position in Asia.

Demography

Capital: Jakarta
Currency: Indonesian rupiah
Population: 281.190 mln
Population density: 147/km2

Economy

GDP: 1.37 trillion USD (2023)
GDP per capita: 4,876.3 USD ‎(2023) ‎
Exports: $320 billion (2022)

Statistics

Internet users: 66.5% penetration, 185.3 million
Unemployment rate: 3.3% (2023)
Urbanisation: 59% (2023)
Literacy: 96% (2020)

Conventions

Numbering system
Arabic numerals with comma as decimal separator.

Date format: dd-mm-yyyy
Time: 24h time system
Country code: 0062

Language data sources: Worldatlas/Britannica//EF/Wikipedia; Demography data sources: IMF/Worldometers; Conventions data source: Wikipedia; Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal; Statistics data sources: Datareportal/WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF/Culturalatlas/Commisceoglobal

Facts and data


Economy

Imports
$230 billion (2022). Refined Petroleum ($23.2B), Crude Petroleum ($10.1B), Petroleum Gas ($4.92B), Motor vehicles; parts and accessories (8701 to 8705) ($4.19B), and Broadcasting Equipment ($4.01B), importing mostly from China ($71.3B), Singapore ($22.5B), Japan ($14.9B), Malaysia ($12.5B), and Thailand ($10.4B).

In 2022, Indonesia was the world’s biggest importer of Soybean Meal ($2.92B), Raw Sugar ($2.37B), Other Large Iron Pipes ($591M), Industrial Furnaces ($474M), and Steam Boilers ($427M).

Financial inclusion factors (over 15 years of  age)
• 50.5% have an account with a financial institution
• 1.6% have a credit card
• 9.3% have a mobile money account
• 5.9% make online purchases

Ease of doing business
It is easy to conduct business (rated 69.6 out of 100) ranked 9th out of 25 East Asia-Pacific countries and ranked 73rd out of 190 countries worldwide (2023, World Bank).

Global Innovation Index
Ranked 12th out of 16 South-Eastern
Asian and Oceanic countries, 61st out of 132 worldwide.

The Global Innovation Index captures the innovation
ecosystem performance of 132 economies and tracks the most recent global innovation trends.

Exports
$320 billion (2022). Coal Briquettes ($50.8B), Palm Oil ($28.7B), Ferroalloys ($13.7B), Petroleum Gas ($11.8B), and Copper Ore ($8.89B), exporting mostly to China ($67.7B), United States ($31.6B), Japan ($26.6B), India ($25.3B), and Malaysia ($15.6B).

In 2022, Indonesia was the world’s biggest exporter of Palm Oil ($28.7B), Ferroalloys ($13.7B), Lignite ($8.29B), Stearic Acid ($6.84B), and Nickel Mattes ($6.27B).

Main local online stores
MercadoLibre, eBay and Amazon, Netshoes, Alibaba, Garbarino.com, Musimundo.com, Frávega, Apple and Cencosud

Economic freedom
‘Moderately free’ (rated 63.5 out of 100) ranked 10th out of 39 Asia-Pacific countries and ranked 53rd out of 184 countries worldwide (2024, Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal).

Economy data sources: WTO/OEC/CIA/Esomar/Datareportal


Indonesia. The wandering whispering.

Indonesia. The wandering whispering.

By Rachmadhina Insan Widyapianissa

At 1,905 million square kilometers with over 275 million people, Indonesia is really a big – both figuratively and literally. Indonesia has 34 provinces, 17,000 islands, and 700 living local languages spoken across the archipelago.

Read it now

Service Imports (2020)
Service Exports (2020)

Source: OEC

Trade balance of goods from 2012 to 2022

Source: Statista

Historical Data Trade Imports

The following section uses historical trade data imports from partners of Indonesia.

Historical Data Trade Exports

The following section uses historical trade data exports from partners of Indonesia.

Source: OEC

The Top Export Opportunities for Indonesia by Relatedness

Relatedness measures the distance between a country's current exports and each product by showing only products that Indonesia is not specialized in.

Indonesia's Most Complex Exports

The Product Complexity Index (PCI) measures the knowledge intensity of a product by considering the knowledge intensity of its exporters.

Source: OEC

Indonesia's Most Specialized Products

Specialization is measured using Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA), an index that takes the ratio between Indonesia observed and expected exports in each product.

Source: OEC

Perception of products made in selected countries in 2017

Source: Statista

Which attributes do you associate with products made in Indonesia?

Source: Statista

Market Growth Imports (2020)

This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start importing that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.

Market Growth Exports (2020)

This score represents the likelihood that the given country will start exporting that product in the next few years. It forecasts the opening of a new specific market.

Source: OEC

Foreign direct investment, net inflows (% of GDP)

Source: OEC

Distribution of e-commerce payment methods in Indonesia in 2019

Source: Worldpay


T-index

T-index

Reach most of the online purchasing power

T-Index ranks countries according to their potential for online sales. It estimates the market share of each country in relation to global e-commerce.

Try it now

Media

Media language Indonesian, English

Information channels
Television is the most popular medium. Major national commercial networks compete with state-owned Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI). The radio dial is crowded, with scores of stations in Jakarta alone. In line with global trends, print newspaper circulations are falling. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) describes as “drastic” the restrictions on media access to the troubled province of West Papua. More generally, it says many journalists self-censor because of the threat from laws on blasphemy and online libel. The authorities can resort to blocking online content deemed to break the law or violate social norms, says Freedom House. The NGO reported restricted access to social media and manipulation of online content during elections in 2019.

The press

The Jakarta Post – English-language daily
Kompas – daily
Pos Kota – daily
Indo Pos – daily
Republika – daily
Bisnis Indonesia – daily
Tempo – weekly

Television

Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI) – state-owned, operates two networks
Surya Citra Televisi Indonesia (SCTV) – private
Rajawali Citra TV Indonesia (RCTI) – private
Indosiar – private
MNCTV – private
Trans 7 – private
Metro TV – private, news

Radio

Radio Republik Indonesia (RRI) – state-owned, operates national, regional and local stations

News agency

Antara – government-owned news agency, English-language pages
Jakarta Globe – news site, in English
Detikcom – news site

Media data source: BBC


Internet Data

Internet users
66.5% penetration, 185.3 million.

Share of web traffic by device
62.83% mobile phones, 36.83% computers (laptops and desktops), 0.34% tablet devices.

Median speed of mobile Internet connection
24.53  Mbps

Median speed of fixed Internet connection
28.34 Mbps

Mobile connection as a percentage of total population: 126.8%

Percentage of mobile connections that are broadband (3G-5G): 95.5%

Most popular web search engines
Google (94.6%), Bing (1.86%), Yahoo! (1.53%), Yandex! (1.02%), DuckDuckGo (0.94%), other (0.05%).

Most used social media
Facebook (58.94%), YouTube  (34.6%), Instagram (4.83%), Twitter (1.16%), Pinterest (0.32%), VKontakte (0.06%), LinkedIn (0.04%), other (0.03%).

Internet data sources: Datareportal/Statcounter


Social statistics

Life expectancy
68 years (2022)

Current education expenditure
88.1% of total expenditure in public institutions

Current health expenditure
3.71% of GDP

Cultural Curiosities
Indonesia’s geography, composed of 17,500 islands, means that there are over 300 different ethnicities, and this has led to the development of many micro-cultures with their own customs and traditions. 

A common trait is a hierarchical structure that most Indonesians follow, with age usually the overriding feature in determining the level of respect. The elderly are thought to have the most wisdom and are thus considered deserving of more authority. 

Graduates
In 2017, about 16% of 25–64 year-olds in Indonesia had attained tertiary education, well below the OECD average of 44% and the G20 average of 38% (Figure 1). Bachelor’s programmes are the most popular form of tertiary education among young adults in Indonesia: 12% of 25–34 year-olds have earned a bachelor’s degree, compared to 4% for short-cycle tertiary qualifications. Not many young adults will graduate from a master’s or doctoral degree in Indonesia: only 1% have attained a master’s degree and below 0.01% a doctorate (OECD averages: 14% and 0.8%).

Corruption perceptions Index
Indonesia scored 34 out of 100, ranked 110 out of 180 countries worldwide.

CO2 emissions
2.1 metric tons per capita

World Happiness Index
Indonesia ranked 87 out of 146 countries, with a score of 5.240.

Social statistics sources: WorldBank/UN/UNESCO/CEIC/IMF


Country Curiosities


Bahasa Indonesia is the 11th most spoken language in the world, with over 270 million speakers. The term “bahasa” means “language,” but Bahasa Indonesia refers specifically to the official language of Indonesia. It’s also a second official language in Vietnam, alongside English, French, and Japanese, since 2007. Known for its simplicity and phonetic nature, Bahasa Indonesia plays a key role in unifying the diverse people of Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

Additionally…

  • Indonesia is the 2nd most linguistically diverse country, with 700+ languages spoken.
  • It’s the world’s largest archipelago, with 17,508 islands, and it’s the last archipelago state in the world.
  • It’s the 4th most populous country worldwide, with over 250 million people.
  • A flourishing democracy, rated the freest in Southeast Asia by Freedom House.
  • Indonesia’s GDP exceeds US$1 trillion, making it an ASEAN powerhouse.
  • Java is the world’s most populous island, home to 140+ million people.
  • Indonesia hosts the world’s largest gold mine.
  • With 165 million under 30, Indonesia has the world’s largest youth population.
  • Indonesia was the first developing country to launch its own satellite system (1976).
  • Positioned between Asia and Oceania, Indonesia is a transcontinental country.

The Data Factbook is a work in progress project. Our community is helping us to fill it up always with new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write your advices at imminent@translated.com


Languages research


Languages spoken in Indonesia

Legend

  • Acehnese

  • Toba Batak

  • Malay

  • Lampung

  • Madurese

  • Sasak

  • Banjarese

  • Maanyan

  • Others Austronesian Languages

  • Bugis

  • Toraja

  • Gorontalo

  • Non Austronesian Languages

  • Minahasa

  • Mongondow

  • Kaili

  • Makassarese

  • Uab Meto

  • Kei

  • Wos Byak

  • Savu

  • Sikka-Maumere

  • Balinese

  • Javanese

  • Sundanese

  • Beati

  • Minangkabau

Languages in percentages

Bahasa Indonesian


The geographical distribution of languages that you will find in the maps published in this section is a work in progress. Our community is helping us to fill it up with always new and updated data. Your contribution is precious. If you want to help us, please write to imminent.factbook@translated.com


Photo credit: Ruben Hutabarat, Unsplash