Where Standard Indonesian is spoken
Standard Indonesian is spoken in 6 countries: Indonesia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and 2 more. The table gives the share of each country’s people who speak it, from Unicode CLDR, where CLDR has a figure.
| Country | Share of population | Estimated speakers |
|---|---|---|
| Indonesia | 64% | 180,199,680 |
| Netherlands | 1.8% | 319,903 |
| Philippines | Not given | Not given |
| Saudi Arabia | Not given | Not given |
| Singapore | Not given | Not given |
| United States | Not given | Not given |
Estimated speakers are the CLDR percentage applied to CLDR’s own population figure for the country, so they are rough. A country without a figure may still have speakers: it is listed because the language area, or Glottolog’s record, reaches it.
Standard Indonesian has no area on the map because no open area map covers it. The ringed point is the position Glottolog gives for the language.
How many people speak Standard Indonesian?
Wikidata gives about 199 million first-language speakers (ethnologue.com). It also lists about 71.2 million second-language speakers (Wikidata, with no source given). These figures are approximate: they come from different sources, years and definitions of a speaker.
Status: Not endangered. Glottolog lists it as not endangered: it is still being passed on to children.
Where Standard Indonesian sits in the language family tree
Glottolog classifies Standard Indonesian as follows, from the largest family down to the language itself.
- Austronesian
- Malayo-Polynesian
- Malayo-Chamic
- Malayic
- Nuclear Malayic
- Standard Malay-Indonesian
- Standard Indonesian
Related languages
Other languages in the Standard Malay-Indonesian group:
More about Standard Indonesian
Codes: ISO 639-3 ind, Glottolog indo1316. Glottolog macroarea: Papunesia.
Questions about Standard Indonesian
Where is Standard Indonesian spoken?
Standard Indonesian is spoken in Indonesia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia and 2 more. Unicode CLDR puts it at 64% of the population of Indonesia, which is about 180,199,680 people. On the map it is shown as a single point, because no open area map covers it.
How many people speak Standard Indonesian?
Wikidata gives about 199 million first-language speakers (ethnologue.com). Speaker numbers are approximate and differ between sources: counting who is a speaker, and whether to include second-language speakers, is not settled. It also lists about 71.2 million second-language speakers (Wikidata, with no source given).
Which language family is Standard Indonesian in?
Glottolog places Standard Indonesian in the Austronesian family, in the branch Malayo-Polynesian, Malayo-Chamic, Malayic, Nuclear Malayic and Standard Malay-Indonesian.