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Indonesia's President Joko Widodo, meets with Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, left, at the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, Monday, Oct. 20, 2014.
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, meets with the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, in Jakarta, in October 2014. Photograph: Tatan Syuflana/AP
Indonesia’s president, Joko Widodo, meets with the Australian prime minister, Tony Abbott, in Jakarta, in October 2014. Photograph: Tatan Syuflana/AP

Australia and Indonesia by the numbers: how do they compare?

This article is more than 9 years old

A comparison of the two countries on various metrics, including size, population and the economy

Population

With an estimated population of 249.9 million in 2013, Indonesia’s population is almost 11 times larger than Australia’s 23.1 million.

pop graph

Source: World Bank

Economy

Australia’s gross domestic product (GDP) of $1.56tn, measured in current US dollars, is substantially larger than Indonesia’s GDP of $868bn.

gdp graph

Source: World Bank

Military

Australia spends much more on its military than Indonesia – $US24bn in 2012, about 1.6% of GDP. Indonesia spent $US7.8bn, around 0.9% of GDP.

military graph

Source: SIPRI databases

Geography

Both Australia and Indonesia are large island nations with vast coastlines. Australia is larger at 7,692,024 square kilometres to Indonesia’s 1,922,570. Here is a size comparison of the two countries:

indonesia aus comparison

Source: Geoscience Australia, National Geographic

Quality of life

The UN publishes the Human Development Index, which combines health, education and income into a single index (HDI).

hdi

Indonesia is ranked at 108 out of 187, with an HDI of 0.684 in 2013. This is below the average for the Asia-Pacific region, but is a significant increase over the 1990 value of 0.479, showing the quality of life in Indonesia is improving.

Australia is second only to Norway on the list with an HDI of 0.933.

Incarceration

Australia has a higher incarceration rate than Indonesia as at 2014, with 144 prisoners per 100,000 people compared to Indonesia’s 66 prisoners per 100,000.

incarceration rate
Photograph: Guardian Australia

Source: International Centre for Prison Studies

Trade

Indonesian exports to Australia were worth about US$6.3bn in 2012, which is 2.97% of total exports. This makes Australia Indonesia’s ninth largest trading partner when ranked by gross export value.

Australian exports to Indonesia were worth about US$5.1bn in 2012, which was 2.1% of Australia’s total exports. This makes Indonesia Australia’s 10th largest trading partner when ranked by gross export value.

Source: Observatory of Economic Complexity

Aid

Australia provided A$574.1m in aid to Indonesia in the 2013-14 financial year, and expects to provide A$605.3m in 2014-15.

Source: DFAT

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