More Than a Quarter of the Rural Population in Maluku and Papua Lives in Poverty

Nationally, the number of poor people in Indonesia in March 2018 decreased by 633,000 to 25.95 million (9.82%) of the total population of approximately 264 million. However, the percentage of rural poor in Maluku and Papua remains quite high. Based on data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, the percentage of rural poor in these two regions reached 29.15%, meaning that more than a quarter of their population lives below the poverty line.

The poverty rate in rural areas of Maluku and Papua is above the national rural poverty rate, which is only 13.2%. Furthermore, the percentage of rural poor in Maluku and Papua is the highest compared to other islands' rural areas, as shown in the graph below. Meanwhile, the urban poverty rate in these two provinces is only 5.03%, the second lowest after Kalimantan Island with a poverty rate of only 4.33%.

For information, the number of poor people in rural areas in Maluku Province reached 274,000 and in North Maluku Province 68,000. Meanwhile, in West Papua Province it reached 195,000 and in Papua Province 876,000. In total, the number of rural poor in Maluku and Papua reaches 1.41 million. This means that approximately 9% of the rural poor population lives in Maluku and Papua.