How Big is Indonesia Actually? Here is the Explanation

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - As a citizen of Indonesia, are you aware of the true size of your country? The majority of people are still unaware of just how vast Indonesia's territory truly is, even though some may have studied it in school.

Reporting from the Worldometer page, Indonesia is ranked 15th in the largest country in the world. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia is the largest country with the longest coastline.

Then, in more detail, how large is Indonesia's sea and land area? Check out the explanation below:

Indonesia's Land and Sea Area

Calculating the area of a country is usually seen from the land area, then the water area, then the overall area is determined. So the area of land and sea are of course two different things. Because Indonesia is an archipelagic country, its water area is certainly larger than its land area.

In general, Indonesia's land area according to the Central Statistics Agency is 1.9 million square kilometers. The population density is 141 people per square kilometer in 2020.

Quoting the website of the Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) with the Indonesian Navy's Hydrographic and Oceanographic Center, the area of Indonesia is 8.3 million square kilometers. With a water area of 6.4 million and a land area of 1.9 million square kilometers.

Based on the Ministry of Education and Culture's Learning Resources page, the area of Indonesia reaches 5,193,250 square kilometers. The land area itself is 1,919,440 square kilometers and the sea area is 3,272,820 square kilometers.

Meanwhile, citing the website of the Directorate General of Marine Spatial Management, of the Marine Affairs and Fisheries Ministry (KKP), the number of islands in Indonesia has reached 17,499 islands and the area is 7.81 million square kilometers. Of this area, it is known that 3.25 million square kilometers is the ocean area and 2.55 million square kilometers is the Exclusive Economic Zone area.

The land area, according to KKP data, is around 2.10 million square kilometers. So based on this area, it is known that Indonesia has large fisheries and maritime potential.

This is proven by the conservation area which reaches 7.12 percent of the waters in Indonesia - data at the end of 2019. The formation of conservation areas in Indonesia itself is a way to protect existing fishery resources. Water areas can also be an economic driver with tourism programs.

In the book Geography 2 by Samadi, Indonesia is also known as a country with extensive natural resource wealth. This area is spread over four large islands, namely Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Papua. Approximately 123 million hectares of them are dry land, and the remaining 39 hectares are wetlands consisting of tidal swamps to lowland swamps.

VIVIA AGARTHA F | AWALIA RAMADHANI

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