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How Many Expats Live in Indonesia?

Who knows?

 

A December 2023 American Indonesian Chamber of Commerce newsletter quoted Tigor M. Siahaan, Kadin's department head as saying "Indonesia currently has over 138,000 foreign workers."

A May 2018 article in the Jakarta Post quoted a Manpower Ministry official, who said "the total number of foreign workers licensed in Indonesia as of early this year was less than 100,000, including foremen, supervisors, managers, senior executives and consultants."

Some Historic Numbers Show the Ebb and Flow of the Community!

June 2021 - Numbers of Foreigners in Bali

 

Expatriate Work Permits Issued - 2013-2016

Top 10 countries of origin for issued work permits

	2013	2014	2015	2016*
China	28,957	32,911	27,527	6,172
Japan	18,968	20,423	18,899	9,777
South Korea	12,759	12,530	11,899	6,244
India	9,952	10,043	8,885	4,286
Malaysia	10,984	10,360	9,051	3,717
Philippine	9,374	8,669	6,840	2,690
USA	5,545	4,987	4,927	2,072
Australia	4,762	4,581	4,333	2,004
Singapore	3,605	3,527	3,306	1,672
Taiwan	3,556	3,492	2,946	1,502
Others	39,800	38,975	29,457	11,307
	148,262	150,498	128,070	61,443

July 2016: In July 2016 the Labor Ministry reported that there were 43,816 foreign workers in Indonesia. This reflects a steady decline in foreign nationals who have been issued work permits, every year since 2010.

In reality, the Indonesian immigration office certainly must have current and accurate figures of the number of people to which they have issued semi-permanent resident visas and permanent resident visas. This information does not seem to be readily available to the general public, however. Their website (in its various incarnations and from time to time) shows bar graphs for the numbers of foreigners, which are almost impossible to decipher and often years old.

In fact, any comprehensive numbers coming out of the Indonesian immigration office also include large numbers (millions) of ethnic minorities who have lived in Indonesia for generations, but have not changed their citizenship to Indonesian.

The imigrasi section at the central Catatan Sipil office on Gatot Subroto has a big whiteboard with the numbers of expats, listing each nationality for each Kantor Imigrasi in Jakarta. They also draw little graphs showing fluctuations over time, but don't include tourists.

The numbers quoted also cannot reflect the number of expatriates who have followed the widely practiced alternative to resident visas of the monthly/bi-monthly tourist visa run. A number of others find ways to work and reside in Indonesia on business visas or social-visit visas, leaving periodically and returning ... and never showing up in semi-permanent resident counts (not advised!)

Another authoritative source of information on the current number of expatriate residents should be the embassies of foreign nationals. The majority of embassies have registration practices where their citizens can register their presence in Indonesia with the embassy. Historically this practice was not followed widely by the majority of expatriates. In the years immediately following the May 1998 riots, and with the subsequent evacuation of many expatriates by their embassies, this practice has perhaps been more closely followed.

However, many expatriates fail to inform their embassies when they depart Indonesia and many choose not to register. Thus, most embassies are doubtful that the number of their citizens that they have registered is an accurate number at any given time for the actual number that are residing in Indonesia.

Another possible source of numbers is the various expatriate community groups. One could add up the membership numbers for each of the groups and come up with a total. But there are many expats who belong to more than one community group ... as well as those who belong to no community organizations. There are also Indonesian nationals who are counted in the membership figures.

To sum up ... no one knows, everyone wants to know, and it would be an enormous research task to determine the true number of expatriates living in Indonesia accurately! Please send us any figures you have received from good sources, and we'll add them to the listing below.

Article of interest - RI cuts back on expat workers

According to the Manpower Ministry’s records on expatriate employment permits (IMTA), the number of foreign workers in Indonesia in 2014 was around 68,500, lower than the 2012 total of 72,427. Citizens of China, Japan, South Korea, India and Malaysia have dominated the expatriate communities. The 2014 data also showed that 21,751 expatriates were categorized as professionals and 15,172 as advisers or consultants. Almost 14,000 workers served as managers, 9,879 as directors, 6,867 as supervisors and 1,101 as commissioners. The majority of the expatriates work in the trade and service, industry or agriculture sectors. (October 2015)

According to data from the Manpower Ministry, as of October 2014, a total of 64,604 foreign workers were registered in Indonesia, a decline from 68,957 in 2013 and 72,427 people in 2012. The largest number workers come from China, amounting to 15,341 people, followed by Japan (10,183), South Korea (7,678), India (4,680), Malaysia (3,779) and the United States (2,497). (January 30, 2015)

There are only about 3,500 Australians legally working in Indonesia. Most of the foreign workers here are from China (14,371), then Japan (11,081), South Korea (9,075), India (6,047) and Malaysia (4,962). (June 2014)

Total of 68.957 foreign workers in 2013; 72.427 in 2012 and 77.307 in 2011 - comprising all nationalities (Feb 10, 2014 Manpower data).

There are now more than 2,062 foreigners working in Bali. Many of these positions are in Bali’s tourism sector. (April 2012, head of Bali’s Manpower Department)

Quotes from online sources in mid-2010 put the number of expats in Indonesia at around 83,000. These sources were quoted in articles related to the changes in property ownership legislation ... and were hopeful of capitalizing on changing regulations to sell more apartments to expats.

May 2010 Manpower Ministry statistics show a working expat population of 45,981 - see Manpower report with breakdown by nationality and industry (in Indonesian).

Bank Indonesia Survey on Foreign Workers in 2009 (thanks lantern)

In different incarnations the .depnakertrans.go.id Kemenakertrans website has figures for foreign workers in Indonesia. This number seems extremely low .. but it's the official report! To see this information, as well as breakdowns by nationality, job title, and area ... click on the English button, then click on the "Data and Information Manpower" navigation link, then see what information they are currently offering.

Data from the Manpower Ministry through the May 2008 showed 15, 205 expats. Their breakdown was:

An online spreadsheet at the Manpower Ministry (which is now offline) showed the 2005 total of expatriates listed as 50,900 expatriates working in Indonesia!

On May 4th, 2004, the white board on the wall of the Kantor Catatan Sipil in Jakarta listed the following numbers for expats in Jakarta:

Jakarta Pusat: 4,407
Jakarta Utara 2,947
Jakarta Barat 2,535
Jakarta Selatan 17,683
Jakarta Timur 1,145

Total expatriates living in Jakarta 28,717

We assume the numbers were accurate .... as it was written on an official white board :)

In 2004, immigration figures showed just under 1,500 expatriates living in Bandung.

In June 2004, the manpower ministry released data that the number of expatriates working in Indonesia had drastically decreased to around 17,000 in Dec. 2003, from 50,000 in 1999.

In October 2003, the Jakarta Post reported: "According to data at the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, the number of foreigners working in Indonesia has reached around 30,000 and most are employed in the industrial zones in Batam, Jakarta, East Java, Kalimantan and Papua."

In late 2001, the Jakarta Post reported that in 2000, there were 3,256,854 expatriates, including their dependents, registered with Immigration to live/work in Indonesia. [Note: this was probably one of those figures that included members of the non-documented ethnic Indonesian communities]

And some time after the May 1998 riots, expat numbers in Indonesia were reported (by various sources) as:

• 8,000-12,000 Americans, living mostly in Jakarta
• 20,000 Australians (though DFAT says 8,000 in Jakarta & 4,000 in Bali)
• 3,300 French; estimated 2,300 of them in Jakarta
• 4,000 British
• 500 Thais
• 10,000-11,000 South Koreans
• Japanese ????

Before the $100/month working expat tax was introduced in 1997, the government said there were 57,000 foreigners working in Indonesia in 1996, earning an estimated $2.4 billion per year (averaging about $42,000 each).

Another source offered what may have been accurate, and credible data - from the Indonesian Embassy in Malaysia - which broke down the numbers as: In 1992, the number of foreigners living in Indonesia was 221,461. Of these, 220,129 were Asians, 2 Africans, 107 Australians, 961 Europeans, and 262 Americans. ...hmmmm two Africans ???

Another figure - UNESCO said that in 1987, the number of foreigners working in Indonesia was 19,000. This number increased to 75,000 in 1990.

*****

Our thanks to Tupairoy for his posting on the Expat Forum (and the many inquiries we receive at www.expat.or.id) which helped to initiate this article.

Last updated December 18, 2023