Poverty data in Indonesia has recently come under public scrutiny. This attention emerged following the uproar caused by a discrepancy between poverty statistics released by the World Bank and those from Indonesia’s Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

According to the World Bank's most recent report, released in June 2025, the number of poor people in Indonesia has dramatically surged to 194.6 million, based on the institution’s updated calculation methodology.

However, this figure starkly contrasts with the most recent poverty data published by BPS. As of September 2024, BPS reported Indonesia's poverty rate at only 8.57%, which translates to approximately 24.06 million individuals.

Dedek Prayudi, spokesperson for the Presidential Communication Office (PCO), responded by saying that these differing figures should not be a source of conflict. He explained that both sets of data actually complement each other, as they were developed with different objectives and methodological approaches.

"Essentially, the two datasets are complementary—they complement each other. This is because their purposes differ, and so do their data designs," Dedek explained in a video statement uploaded to PCO's official Instagram account on Sunday, June 15, 2025.