Page 61 - AEI Insights 2019 - Vol. 5, Issue 1

Ziegenhain, 2019

0-14 years 15-65 years 65-100 years

1990 66.104,4 mio. 108.465,7 mio. 6.866,8 mio.
2015 71.325,6 mio. 172.912,6 mio. 13.325,7 mio.

2040 66.745,6 mio. 209.983,9 mio. 35.709,9 mio.
Table 3: Data from Database Global Political Demography v1_20171006

In 1990, young people below 15 years were a quite big group with 35.43 percent of the total
population. Their absolute number was only growing slowly until 2015. Their percentage of
total population, however is nearly 10 percentage points lower. This will continue until 2040
when the proportion of young people below 15 years is expected to drop to 21.36 percent of
the total population.

Percentage Percentage Percentage
0-14 years 15-65 years 65-100 years

1990 36.43 % 59.78 % 3.78 %
2015 27.69 % 67,17 % 5,17 %

2040 21,36 % 67,21 % 11.43 %.
Table 4: Data from Database Global Political Demography v1_20171006, own calculations

Nearly 70 percent of the population were in the productive age between 15 and 64 in 2015.
Such high numbers indicate that - from a demographic perspective - there is great potential for
both productivity and economic growth in Indonesia. The proportion of working people in the
total population is high and this demographic dividend gives more people the chance to be
productive and contribute to growth of the national economy. It must be seen in the Indonesian
context as well, however, that there are currently millions of (educated) unemployed
Indonesians who cannot be absorbed by the labour market (VDSI 2017). The unemployment
rate, particularly for people between the age of 15 and 24 is quite high and far above the
country's national average.
Slowly, as can be seen in Figure 4, the population age structure will shift from a still relatively
young population pyramid to one that is characterized by significant population ageing, with
the share of the population above age 65 increasing from 5.17 % to 11.43 %.

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