Indonesia has a young population and could become a major centre for economic development as other centres, such as China, experience the problems of an aging population.
But Indonesia, whose population now is about 247 million, may have a problem of knowing how far and fast it is growing. A shortage of marriage registration books has left many couples without the right paperwork. The fertility rate is 2.6 children per married couple – it’s 1.6 in Canada – and the population is believed to be growing at up to five million a year.
