Quantifying Indonesia's Ethnic Diversity

Abstract

Ethnicity used to be a political taboo in Indonesia, a country with more than 600 ethnic groups, but this has changed since the advent of the Reform era (1998). The government of Indonesia (through Statistics-Indonesia) included a question on ethnicity in its 2000 population census, and continued in the 2010 census. This paper produces the first estimates of ethnic diversity at the national, provincial, and district levels using tabulations provided by Statistics-Indonesia based on the full enumeration data set of the 2010 Indonesia Population Census. It analyzes three measurements of ethnic diversity: the percentage of the largest ethnic group, Ethnic Fractionalization Index (EFI), and Ethnic Polarization Index (EPOI). This paper provides a quantitative start for further studies to link ethnic diversity with many social, economic, and political variables, including studies on the dynamics of ethnic diversity. We conclude that Indonesia is relatively ethnically fractionalized, though not as polarized. Among provinces and districts, we have seen a continuum ranging from ethnically homogeneous to heterogeneous, from the least fractionalized to the most fractionalized, and from the least polarized to the most polarized province or district. Variation in ethnic diversity is also seen across islands although provinces and districts in the Island of Java are more likely to be homogeneous, less fractionalized and less polarized than provinces and districts outside Java Island.

KEYWORDS:

• largest percentage of ethnic groups
• Ethnic Fractionalization Index
• Ethnic Polarization Index
• ethnic diversity
• Indonesia

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental Data

The Appendix for this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17441730.2015.1090692.

Notes

1. For an extended discussion on how the new classification was constructed, see Ananta et al. (2015).

2. To avoid a distorted picture of ethnicity in Indonesia as presented in the 2000 data, another serious effort should be carried out to reclassify the data on ethnicity from the 2000 population census. Suryadinata, Arifin, and Ananta (2003) made such an attempt, but was limited to the published data of the 2000 census. Ananta, Arifin, and Bakhtiar (2005) made a revision of the classification based on the raw data set of the 2000 population, but this study was limited to the five largest ethnic groups in Indonesia: Javanese, Sundanese, Malay, Batak, and Madurese. It should also be noted that the 2000 population census suffered from under-enumeration, especially on the Acehnese, Dayak, and Chinese. A more detailed discussion of this under-enumeration is found in Ananta et al. (2015) and Hull (2010).

3. The establishment of the Province of North Kalimantan in October 2012 consisted of five districts, namely the City of Tarakan (its capital) and the Regencies of Bulungan, Malinau, Nunukan, and Tana Tidung.

4. More discussions on politics and statistics on ethnicity can be found in Ananta et al. (2015).

5. Two of the authors (Aris Ananta and Evi Nurvidya Arifin) are not from Statistics-Indonesia, but they have witnessed how statisticians in Statistics-Indonesia have been working without any government intervention. At least this is what the two authors perceive with regard to data on ethnicity.

6. For an understanding of the theory and framework of conflict and distribution, Esteban and Ray (1999) would be a useful. Further analytical framework to understand the linkage between polarization, fractionalization and conflict can be found in Esteban and Ray (2008), while empirical studies are covered in Reynal-Querol (2002) and Montalvo and Reynal-Querol (2005).

7. Esteban and Ray (1994) showed that polarization of a distribution of individual characteristics has to fulfil the following three requirements. First, there must be a high degree of homogeneity within each group. Second, there must be a high degree of heterogeneity across groups. The third is that there must be some numbers of significantly sized groups. Groups of insignificant sizes can be ignored. Esteban and Ray contended that polarization is a phenomenon that is closely related to the generation of tensions and probabilities of articulated rebellion and revolt, as well as social unrest in general. This is particularly true if the underlying set of attributes is income and wealth. In their words, ‘A society that is divided into groups, with substantial intra-group homogeneity and inter-group heterogeneity in, say, incomes, is likely to exhibit the features mentioned above. At the same time, measured inequality in such a society may be low'. Esteban and Ray also explained the need of theory of polarization. They explained that there were many social and economic issues which can be explained by understanding the degree of clustering or polarization, better than using the measurement of inequality.

8. This number is smaller than the fully recorded number 237.6 million as it excludes the number of foreigners as well as the Indonesians who were not asked about their ethnicity due to their mobility. This group was approached differently using a shorter version of questionnaire. Nevertheless, because of the huge population and high mobility of Indonesians, it is impossible to get the most accurate number of Indonesia's population. See Hull (2010) for a discussion on the numbers of population derived from the 2010 population census.

9. Mimika is the name for both the ethnic group and regency.

10. At the end of 2011, Mesuji suffered from ethnic conflict, between the local and migrant ethnic groups, triggered by land disputes between villagers and a plantation company.

11. Chauvel (2004) argued that there were more than 300 small Papuan ethnic-linguistic groups in the Land of Papua. Ananta et al. (2015), using the new classification based on the 2010 population census, found that there were at least 261 Papuan groups in the Land of Papua. In addition, the census also recorded one category of ‘Others', which can be a group of many tiny Papuan ethnic groups.

12. The regency of Puncak Jaya was created in 1999; Tolikara, and Supiori, in 2002; and Deiyai, Yalimo, Lanny Jaya, Nduga, as well as Dogiyai, in 2008.

Additional information

Evi Nurvidya Arifin (author to whom correspondence should be addressed), Centre for Ageing Studies, University of Indonesia, Rumah Dinas Rektor, Kampus UI Depok, Depok, West Java 16424, Indonesia.

Aris Ananta, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Indonesia, Kampus UI Depok, Depok, West Java 16424, Indonesia. Email: [email protected]

Dwi Retno Wilujeng Wahyu Utami, Statistics-Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik), Jalan Dr. Sutomo no 6–8, Jakarta 10710, Indonesia. Email: [email protected]

Nur Budi Handayani, Statistics-Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik), Jalan Dr. Sutomo no 6–8, Jakarta 10710, Indonesia. Email: [email protected]

Agus Pramono, Statistics-Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik), Jalan Dr. Sutomo no 6–8, Jakarta 10710, Indonesia. Email: [email protected]