Country Profile - Indonesia

Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population, who live alongside a sizeable Christian community and various other minorities. In this vast country, the situation of Christians varies from place to place. In some areas Christians are currently enduring intense pressure, which sometimes escalates into intimidation and violence. At times in the last 30 years Christians have been killed, churches burned and whole Christian communities displaced.

Yet it was not always so. Until the 1980s Indonesia was a model of good relations between Islam and Christianity. 

This map of Indonesia shows the percentage of Christians in the country’s various provinces

Muslim dominance

The vast archipelago of Indonesia comprises more than 17,000 islands and has a population of some 245,000,000 people. According to official figures, about 88% (215 million) of its people are Muslims, and around 9% (22 million) are Christians. However, many Christians and members of other minority groups believe that the proportion of Muslims has been seriously overestimated, and church leaders suggest that Christians may number 15% or even 20% of the population.

Christianity has a long history in Indonesia. Missionaries were active there from the 16th century, and a small Christian presence was maintained throughout the centuries of colonial rule, mainly by the Dutch. In the 19th and early 20th centuries the churches experienced significant growth, which became explosive in the 1960s. Large communities of Christians form the majority population on some islands.

But Christianity has always been a minority faith in the country as a whole. For many centuries the population was mainly Hindu and Buddhist. Then Islam gained a foothold in the 13th and 14th centuries, introduced by traders and mystics from India, and by the 18th century Muslims were dominant in most of the territories. Their supremacy has been unchallenged since, either by the Indonesia Indonesia is home to the world’s largest Muslim population, who live alongside a sizeable Christian community and various other minorities. In this vast country, the situation of Christians varies from place to place. In some areas Christians are currently enduring intense pressure, which sometimes escalates into intimidation and violence. At times in the last 30 years Christians have been killed, churches burned and whole Christian communities displaced. Yet it was not always so. Until the 1980s Indonesia was a model of good relations between Islam and Christianity. growth of the churches or by the persistence of small groups of Buddhists, Hindus and others.