Continuity and Change in Demographic Patterns of Indonesia's Urbanization, 2000-2010

This paper will identify the urbanization pattern in Indonesia by employing simple statistical methods to the readily available data of the 2000 and 2010 Indonesia Population Censuses, including percentage and rate of urban population growth. Urban localities (Desa Urban) are still largely concentrated on the island of Java, which may reflect the urban development disparity between Java and the outer islands, despite the fact that some outer island provinces have already experienced a high increase in the growth of urban localities and urban population. The peripheral of large cities experienced much more rapid annual population growth than the core of cities. Although urban population is still greatly concentrated in Java, there have been significant increase in the proportion of urban population in some provinces outside over the period 2000-2010. Nonetheless, small and and intermediate cities outside Java play a more important role as centers of socioeconomic activities compared to those in Java. In general, the recent pattern of Indonesia's urbanization reflects a continuity from the situation in 1990 and 2000, but at present some regions outside Java have began to undergo rapid increase in the urbanization level and urban population growth.