Prisma Ardianto, Jakarta – Indonesia's poverty rate declines to 8.25% of the population in September 2025, with the number of people living below the poverty line falling to 23.36 million, official data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) shows.

The figure marks a reduction of about 490,000 people compared with March 2025 and extends a steady downward trend in poverty levels observed since March 2023 at 9.36%.

"Poverty levels are declining in both urban and rural areas," BPS chief Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti said during a hybrid press conference on Thursday.

The poverty rate drops by 0.22 percentage points from March 2025, reflecting improvements in both urban and rural areas. Urban poverty declines to 6.6% in September 2025, down 0.13 percentage points from six months earlier, while rural poverty falls more sharply to 10.72%, a decrease of 0.31 percentage points.

Despite the overall improvement, poverty remains unevenly distributed across the archipelago. Java continues to account for the largest share of Indonesia's poor population, with 12.32 million people – or about 52.75% of the national total – living below the poverty line on the country's most populous island.

By contrast, Kalimantan records the smallest number of poor residents, at around 880,000 people, representing just 3.76% of Indonesia's total poor population.

BPS data shows that poverty levels decline across all regions compared with March 2025, with the steepest reduction recorded in Maluku and Papua. In the easternmost regions, the poverty rate falls by 0.68 percentage points over the six-month period.

Beyond headline figures, BPS also reports improvements in measures that capture the depth and severity of poverty. The poverty gap index (P1), which reflects how far the average poor person's spending falls below the poverty line, stands at 1.290 in September 2025. A lower P1 value indicates that the average expenditure of poor households is moving closer to the poverty line.

Meanwhile, the poverty severity index (P2), which measures inequality in spending among the poor, stands at 0.303 as of September 2025. The index remains relatively unchanged in urban areas at 0.245 but declines in rural regions to 0.360, suggesting a more even distribution of expenditure among poor households in the countryside.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesias-poverty-level-hits-lowest-point-since-2023-bps-report