Provinces with the Highest Poverty Rate in March 2018

Indonesia has approximately 74,000 villages. Of this number, an estimated 18%, or 18,126 villages, are categorized as underdeveloped, with the highest concentration in eastern Indonesia. They are considered underdeveloped due to a lack of development in economic aspects, human resources, infrastructure, accessibility, and regional characteristics. This underdevelopment leads to high poverty rates in these areas.

According to data from the National Development Planning Agency (Bappenas), the number of poor people in rural areas has generally been higher than in urban areas from 2007 to 2018. During the period from March 2017 to March 2018, poverty rates decreased in all provinces except for Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung, North Maluku, and Papua, which experienced increases.

Papua has the highest percentage of impoverished residents, reaching 27.74%, meaning that more than a quarter of the province's population is classified as poor. This poverty rate in Indonesia's easternmost province is 17.92 percentage points higher than the national poverty rate of 9.82% and 24.17 percentage points higher than that of Jakarta (3.15%). A striking disparity or difference in poverty rates is evident between Papua and Jakarta.