World Bank Suggests RI Continue To Use BPS Data To Calculate Poverty

The World Bank recommends that Indonesia continue to use the poverty line and official data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS). The data is considered the most appropriate for designing social protection programs and other poverty alleviation policies. 

The World Bank's statement was in response to the latest poverty line which has had an impact on the spike in the number of poor people in Indonesia. The poverty line measurement is different from the BPS national standard. 

"For questions about national policies in Indonesia, the national poverty line and poverty statistics published by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) are the most appropriate," the World Bank wrote in a Factsheet entitled 'The World Bank's Updated Global Poverty Lines: Indonesia', Monday (6/16/2025). 

As is known, the World Bank changed the international poverty line to adjust the 2021 purchasing power parity (PPP) standard, from the previous 2017 PPP. This is designed to compare countries with global standards and monitor progress worldwide in poverty alleviation. 

"The lines are revised periodically to ensure that the measurements reflect global conditions," the World Bank wrote. 

With the 2021 PPP, the World Bank sets the extreme poverty line at US$ 3.00 per day (equivalent to around Rp 546,400 per month after taking into account the cost of living in Indonesia). Previously, the 2017 PPP standard was US$ 2.15. 

In addition to the extreme poverty line, there is also a poverty line for lower-middle-income countries or LMICs of US$ 4.20 per day (around Rp 765,000 per person per month), and upper-middle-income countries or UMICs of US$ 8.30 per day (around Rp 1,512,000 per person per month). 

According to the new international extreme poverty line, the World Bank considers 5.4% of Indonesia's population to be poor in 2024 out of a total population of 285.1 million, 19.9% ??poor according to the LMIC poverty line, and 68.3% poor according to the poverty line for UMIC countries. 

Indonesia has been categorized as a UMIC country by the World Bank in 2023 after its per capita income reached US$4,810 that year. Thus, the World Bank considers the number of poor people in Indonesia in 2024 to be equivalent to 68.3% of the total population or 194.72 million people, up from the 2017 PPP standard of 171.91 million people. 

"As a result of the higher threshold, most countries experienced an increase in their international poverty rates, as did Indonesia," the World Bank wrote. 

Tag: BPS Central Statistics Agency World Bank