Indonesia: Urban Geography

Indonesia

An Urban Geography Profile

• Largest City: Jakarta
• Rank Size Rule Population Estimate: 9,751,937
• Actual Population: 9,751,937
• 2nd Largest City: Surabaya
• Rank Size Rule Population Estimate: 4,875,969
• Actual Population: 2,814,867
• 3rd Largest City: Bekasi
• Rank Size Rule Population Estimate: 3,250,646
• Actual Population: 2,581,539
• 4th Largest City: Bandung
• Rank Size Rule Population Estimate: 2,437,984
• Actual Population: 2,488,390
• 5th Largest City: Medan
• Rank Size Rule Population Estimate: 1,950,387
• Actual Population: 2,162,805

To what extent is the Rank Size Rule shown to be valid or invalid based upon the population information for your country?

The Rank Size Rule suggests that the 2nd largest city in a country will be about half the size of the population of the country's largest city, the 3rd largest city will be about 1/3 the size of the largest city, so on and so forth such that the N largest city would be 1/N the size of the largest city's population.  The actual populations for Indonesia's 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th largest cities are much closer together than they should be according to the estimates of the Rank Size Rule.  There is little, if any evidence, would could be used to support a claim that the Rank Size Rule is valid for Indonesia. Jakarta's situation is better defined as a primate city due to being disproportionately larger than other cities (proportion as suggested by the Rank Size Rule).

Population: 238,181,000

Population Density: 125 people per sq km

% Urban Population: 43%

% Urban Population Living in Slums: 26%

Average Annual % Change in Urban Population: 3.3%

% with Improved Urban Sanitation: 67%

% with Improved Urban Water Supply: 89%

Information from World Gazetteer and the Population Reference Bureau