Jayanty Nada Shofa, Jakarta – The Central Statistics Agency, or BPS, announced Wednesday that the average Indonesian could live for around 74 years as data showed that the national life expectancy continued to witness an uptrend.
BPS revealed that Indonesia's life expectancy at birth had climbed to 74.47 years in 2025, up by 0.32 years compared to 2024 levels. This is only the average number, meaning many people may live even longer. According to BPS, Indonesia's life expectancy has consistently been on the rise since the pandemic-hit 2020, during which the average citizen had a life span of 73.37 years at birth. The figures gradually rose to 73.46 years in 2021 before reaching 73.70 years in 2022 and 73.93 years the next. Southeast Asia's biggest economy then improved its life expectancy to 74.15 years in 2024.
"The increase in life expectancy [at birth] shows that there are improvements to Indonesians' health standards," Moh Edy Mahmud, the deputy for statistical analysis at BPS, told a press conference in Jakarta.
According to Edy, the latest figures reflected how more Indonesians are now giving birth at their local healthcare facilities. The archipelagic Indonesia has seen many women delivering their babies in the comfort of their homes – a practice that dates back to many years ago. BPS also attributed the higher life expectancy to how people are increasingly aware of the need to drink clean water.
"The latest figures also indicate improved access to healthcare," Edy said.
As of 2020, Indonesia had a population 270.2 million people. Approximately 11.56 percent of them were the so-called "baby boomers", namely people who were born between 1946 and 1964. They should be somewhere around 61 to 79 years old now.
Over the past year, the Prabowo Subianto government has seen a number of human capital development-centric policies, a key example being the nationwide school-feeding program. The budget-heavy rollout of government-funded meals do not only target students, but also expectant mothers and toddlers. The government recently reported that they had fed at least 38.5 million people nationwide, although mass food-poisonings had painted a grim picture of this initiative.
The Prabowo administration also saw the launch of the free health check program in February 2025, almost four months after the retired army general assumed power. Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin revealed Wednesday that at least 50.5 million individuals had undertaken the free health screening.
Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/the-average-indonesian-lives-for-74-years-bps-say