Indonesia is now officially an ageing nation, according to the 2025 Intercensal Survey (SUPAS) published by Statistics Indonesia (BPS).
The survey published on 12 May 2026 reveals that the percentage of the elderly population has climbed to 11.97%, breaching for the first time the 10% threshold used to differentiate between a young population and an ageing one.
The exercise conducted every five years found that the elderly population share has continued to climb in each of the surveys. The ageing population has risen from 7.59% in 2010 to 8.4% and 9.93% in the subsequent surveys, before reaching the current level.
Indonesia’s population recorded at 284.67m in 2025 implies that it has grown at an average 1.08% every year over the survey’s five-year horizon. The number is the result of births and deaths as well as migration into and out of the country.
The total fertility rate (TFR) has gradually declined from 2.41 in 2010 to 2.13 in 2025, inching ever closer to what is known as the replacement level, generally cited as 2.1 children per woman, which is the level generally required for a population to replace itself from one generation to another without migration.
Countries with a severe population decline, like South Korea, China and Japan have TFRs around 0.8, 1.02 and 1.2 respectively.
Many countries in Asia are experiencing an ageing population, which hurts economic growth as the workforce shrinks while straining public finances through increased spending on health care and pensions.
Indonesia’s productive age population – those between 15 and 64 years of age – reached a peak of 69.28% in 2020, and has since inched down to 68.94% in 2025.