Facts about Indonesia

The Dutch colonized East India from the early 17th century. The islands were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. Indonesia declared its independence after Japan’s surrender, but it required four years of intermittent negotiations, recurring hostilities, and UN mediation before the Netherlands agreed to relinquish its colony. Indonesia is the world’s largest archipelagic state and home to the world’s largest Muslim population.

Location
Southeastern Asia, archipelago of 17,508 islands (6,000 inhabited), between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

Capital
Jakarta

Independence
17 August 1945 (independence proclaimed);
27 December 1949 (Netherlands recognized Indonesian independence)

Political structure
1. President
2. Gubenur (governor)
3. Bupati (regent)
4. Camat (sub-district head)
5. Kepala Desa (village head)
6. Kepala Dusun (sub-village head)
7. Kepala RW ( Rukun Werga) (leader of neighborhood)
8. Kepala RT ( Rukun Tetanga) (leader of small neighborhood)

Area
Total: 1,919,440 sq km
Land: 1,826,440 sq km
Water: 93,000 sq km

Population
Total: 245 452 739 (July 2006 est.)
0-14 years: 28.8% (male 35,995,919/female 34,749,582)
15-64 years: 65.8% (male 80,796,794/female 80,754,238)
65 years and over: 5.4% (male 5,737,473/female 7,418,733)

Languages
Bahasa Indonesia (official, modified form of Malay), English, local dialects, the most widely spoken of which is Javanese

Ethnic groups
Javanese 45%,
Sundanese 14%
Madurese 7.5%
Coastal Malays 7.5%
Other 26%

Religions (1998)
Islam 88%
Protestant 5%
Roman Catholic 3%
Hindu 2%
Buddhist 1%
other 1%

Official religions
Islam
Protestantism
Catholicism
Hinduism
Buddhism
Confucianism.

Animism is not considered an offical religion, but still many people practice it, it is most common to practice animism alongside one of the offical religons.