Arnoldus Kristianus, Jakarta – Indonesia's poverty rate fell to 8.07% of the population in March 2026, with the number of people living below the national poverty line declining by 430,000 to 22.93 million, according to official data released on Wednesday.

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) said the latest figures extended a steady downward trend in poverty that has continued since March 2023.

"Both the number of poor people and the poverty rate have continued to decline from March 2023 through March 2026," Edy Mahmud, BPS deputy head for statistical analysis, said in Jakarta.

Despite the improvement, poverty remained significantly more prevalent in rural areas, where the poverty rate stood at 10.67%, compared with 6.34% in urban areas.

More than half of Indonesia's poor population lived on Java, home to 12.02 million people living below the poverty line, accounting for 52.4% of the national total.

Kalimantan recorded the lowest number of poor residents among Indonesia's major island groups, with 870,000 people, or 3.79% of the country's total poor population.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/news/nearly-23-million-indonesians-remain-poo