Papua was the province with the most underdeveloped villages in 2021.

According to a report by the Ministry of Villages, Development of Disadvantaged Regions, and Transmigration (Mendes PDTT), Papua had the highest number of villages classified as "very underdeveloped" in 2021. This is reflected in the average Village Development Index (IDM) in Papua, which was the lowest among all provinces at 0.4563.

This figure decreased by 0.01% compared to 2020, when the average IDM was 0.4632. By 2021, 3,604 villages in Papua, or 66.6% of the total 5,411 villages, were classified as "very underdeveloped." The remaining villages comprised 1,464 (27.05%) classified as "underdeveloped," 316 (5.8%) as "developing," 26 (0.48%) as "advanced," and only 1 village as "independent."

Provinces with the lowest average IDM after Papua were West Papua (0.5045), North Maluku (0.5861), and East Nusa Tenggara (0.5885). These three provinces are categorized as having villages with underdeveloped IDM status.

In detail, West Papua had 752 villages (43.14% of the total 1,742 villages) classified as "very underdeveloped." 840 villages (48.22%) were classified as "underdeveloped," 137 (7.8%) as "developing," and 13 (0.74%) as "advanced."

Meanwhile, North Maluku has 1,063 villages. Of these, 72 (6.7%) are classified as "very underdeveloped," 553 (52%) as "underdeveloped," 384 (36.12%) as "developing," and 54 (5.08%) as "advanced."

East Nusa Tenggara has 118 villages (3.9% of the total 3,026 villages) classified as "very underdeveloped." 1,592 (52.6%) are "underdeveloped," 1,181 (39%) are "developing," 132 (4.3%) are "advanced," and only 3 villages are classified as "independent."

Furthermore, North Sumatra and West Sulawesi have average IDMs of 0.6003 and 0.6043, respectively. Above them are Aceh (0.6199), Southeast Sulawesi (0.6231), Maluku (0.6290), and North Kalimantan (0.6292). These provinces are categorized as having villages with developing IDM status.

The province with the highest average IDM is Bali (0.8037), categorized as having villages with advanced IDM status. Bali has 636 villages, with 296 (46.54%) classified as "independent," 275 (43.23%) as "advanced," 65 (10.22%) as "developing," and none classified as "underdeveloped" or "very underdeveloped."

For information, the Village Development Index is a composite index based on three indices: the social resilience index (covering education, health, social capital, and housing); the economic resilience index (covering access to trade centers and markets, logistics access, banking and credit access, and regional openness); and the ecological resilience index (covering environmental quality, natural disasters, and disaster response).

The Village Development Index reflects the progress and independence of villages and provides basic data and information for village development.