Indonesia 🇮🇩

Indonesia is a country in Asia with a population of 275,501,339. Its capital is Jakarta. The official currency is IDR, and the main languages are Indonesian.

Quick facts

Capital: Jakarta
Continent: Asia
Population: 275,501,339
Area: 1,904,569 km²
Density: 145 people per km²
Currency: IDR
Languages: Indonesian
ISO code: ID

Where Indonesia sits

Indonesia 🇮🇩 is one of 48 countries in Asia, with its capital at Jakarta. It covers 1,904,569 square kilometres — 14th in the world — and is home to about 275,501,339 people, 4th globally.

The countries it shares a continent with include China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Japan. If you are learning geography region by region — which works far better than alphabetically, because memory for places is spatial — those are the ones to learn alongside it.

How Indonesia compares

Raw figures are hard to hold on their own, so it helps to anchor them. In population, Indonesia sits closest to Pakistan and Nigeria. In land area, its nearest counterparts are Sudan and Mexico.

At 145 people per square kilometre it is about 2.4 times the world average of 59.4. It ranks higher by population than by area, so it is more crowded than its size alone suggests.

Indonesian is listed as official in Indonesia alone. The IDR is used by Indonesia and no one else.

To see Indonesia next to every other country, sort the country rankings by population, area or density; its currency and languages are listed alongside every other country's in world currencies and world languages.

How to remember Indonesia

Jakarta is on Java, the island where more than half of all Indonesians live. A new capital, Nusantara on Borneo, has been planned since 2022, but the capital's legal role stays in Jakarta until a presidential decree moves it, so Jakarta is still the quiz answer. For the flag: red over white is Indonesia (and Monaco); flip it to white over red and you have Poland.

The flag of Indonesia: red and white

🇮🇩 The flag is two equal horizontal stripes, red on top and white below. Red stands for courage and white for purity. The colours come from the banner of the Majapahit Empire of the 13th to 15th centuries, and the flag is called Sang Saka Merah Putih, 'the Heirloom Red-White'.

Region and neighbours

Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian and Pacific oceans, made up of thousands of islands including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi and parts of Borneo and New Guinea. It shares land borders with 3 countries: Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste. All three borders are on shared islands: Borneo with Malaysia, New Guinea with Papua New Guinea, and Timor with Timor-Leste.

Malaysia 🇲🇾 — capital Kuala Lumpur
Papua New Guinea 🇵🇬 — capital Port Moresby
Timor-Leste 🇹🇱 — capital Dili

Three facts about Indonesia

Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state, with between 13,000 and 17,000 islands.
Puncak Jaya, 4,884 m high on New Guinea, is Indonesia's highest peak, and Lake Toba on Sumatra is its largest lake.
The Komodo dragon was made one of Indonesia's official national animals by a presidential decree in 1993.

Sources: Wikipedia: Indonesia, Wikipedia: Flag of Indonesia, Wikipedia: Jakarta, CIA World Factbook.

Quiz yourself on Indonesia

Asian capitals quiz — match Indonesia to Jakarta
Asian flags quiz — spot the Indonesia flag among its neighbours

Quizzes that include Indonesia

Three angles are worth covering for any country — where it is, what its flag looks like, and what its capital is. For Indonesia those are:

Asia map quiz — place it on a blank map
Asia flags quiz — identify its flag among its neighbours
Asia capitals quiz — match it to Jakarta
Indonesia capital quiz — five quick questions starting with Indonesia
Daily Map Challenge — five countries to find on a blank world map, the same five for everyone each day

Doing all three for one continent before moving on is far more efficient than learning flags globally, then capitals globally, then the map.

Nearby countries

Afghanistan 🇦🇫 — capital Kabul
Armenia 🇦🇲 — capital Yerevan
Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 — capital Baku
Bahrain 🇧🇭 — capital Manama
Bangladesh 🇧🇩 — capital Dhaka
Bhutan 🇧🇹 — capital Thimphu
Brunei 🇧🇳 — capital Bandar Seri Begawan
Cambodia 🇰🇭 — capital Phnom Penh
China 🇨🇳 — capital Beijing
Georgia 🇬🇪 — capital Tbilisi
India 🇮🇳 — capital New Delhi
Iran 🇮🇷 — capital Tehran

Frequently asked questions

What are the colours of the Indonesia flag?

The flag of Indonesia is two equal horizontal stripes, red on top and white below. Red stands for courage and white for purity. The colours come from the banner of the Majapahit Empire of the 13th to 15th centuries, and the flag is called Sang Saka Merah Putih, 'the Heirloom Red-White'.

Which countries border Indonesia?

Indonesia shares land borders with Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste. All three borders are on shared islands: Borneo with Malaysia, New Guinea with Papua New Guinea, and Timor with Timor-Leste.