A report by Indonesia's Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) reveals a continuous decline in the use of regional languages across generations in the country.
Despite this, the BPS notes that the proportion of Indonesians using regional languages to communicate with family remains relatively high.
The BPS data refers to the everyday use of regional languages within the family. Consequently, the pre-boomer generation (born in 1945 and before) shows the highest proportion of regional language use, at 87.13%.
Following this, 82.56% of baby boomers (1946-1964) use regional languages. This is followed by Generation X (1965-1980) at 77.31%.
Among younger generations, millennials (1981-1996) show a usage rate of 77.31%, while Generation Z (1997-2012) follows at 72.21%.
Finally, the post-Gen Z generation (born in 2013 and after) exhibits the lowest proportion of regional language use within the family, at 62.94%.
The BPS also explains that the number of speakers is a key indicator of a regional language's strength and its ability to avoid extinction.
"The larger the number of speakers of a language, the greater the chance of that language surviving," the BPS report states.
(See also: Millennials Most Proficient in Indonesian in 2022)