Ethnic groups in Indonesia

There are more than 600 ethnic groups in the multicultural Indonesian archipelago, making it one of the most diverse countries in the world. The vast majority of these belong to the Austronesian peoples, concentrated in western and central Indonesia (Asia), with a sizable minority are Melanesian peoples concentrated in eastern Indonesia (Oceania). However, genetic studies show that ethnic groups in Java, Bali, and Lombok have significant traces of Austroasiatic ancestry, even though Austroasiatic languages have long been replaced by Austronesian languages in the region.
Based on ethnic classification, the largest ethnic group in Indonesia is the Javanese who make up about 40% of the total population. The Javanese are concentrated on the island of Java, the world's most populous island, particularly in the central and eastern parts, but significant Javanese communities also exist in Sumatra, Borneo, and Sulawesi due to historical migration and government-sponsored transmigration programs. It is also the largest ethnic group in Southeast Asia. The Sundanese are the next largest group; their homeland is located in the western part of the island of Java and the southern edge of Sumatra. The Malays, Batak, Madurese, Betawi, Minangkabau, and Bugis are the next largest groups in the country.
Many ethnic groups, particularly in Kalimantan and Papua, have only hundreds of members. Most of the local languages belong to the Austronesian language family, although a significant number of people, particularly in eastern Indonesia, speak unrelated Papuan languages. Indonesians of Chinese, Arab and Indian descent each make up less than 3% of the total Indonesian population.
The classification of ethnic groups in Indonesia is not rigid and in some cases unclear due to migrations, cultural and linguistic influences; for example, some may consider the Bantenese to be members of the Sundanese people; however, others argue that they are different ethnic groups altogether since they have their own distinct dialects. This is also the case with the Baduy people, who share many cultural similarities with the Sundanese people. An example of hybrid ethnicity is the Betawi people, descended not only from marriages between different peoples native to Indonesia, but also intermarriages with Arab, Chinese and Indian migrants since the era of colonial Batavia (modern-day Jakarta).
The following lists of major ethnic groups in Indonesia are based on the 2010 Indonesian census.
This list was compiled from the raw data of the 2010 census by Statistics Indonesia (Badan Pusat Statistik, BPS) based on a preliminary classification, which is not meant to be exhaustive and combined figures for smaller groups in various regions.
This list was compiled from the same raw data of the 2010 census, according to the "new classification" developed by Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) in collaboration with Statistics Indonesia. The new classification categorized 1,331 coded ethnicities from the census into more than 600 groups instead of just 31 in the initial classification, completely dissolved the placeholder "ethnic groups from X" categories to better capture the diversity of Indonesia's ethnic demography, corrected misplaced groups and subgroups, and attempted to aggregate and separate sub-ethnic groups into ethnic groups by relying on anthropological sources.
Most ethnic groups are indigenous to certain regions of Indonesia. Due to migration within Indonesia (as part of government transmigration programs or otherwise), significant proportions of those ethnic groups reside outside of their traditional regions.
Throughout Indonesian history, various ethnic groups of foreign origin spread throughout Indonesia in several migration waves, and usually established themselves in urban centres, seldom settling rural parts of the country.
According to the United Nations, there were 355,505 international migrants in Indonesia in 2020. Their most common countries of origin were as follows: