1961 Indonesian census

1961 Population Census Sensus Penduduk 1961
← 1930 31 October 1961 (1961-10-31) 1971 →
Postage stamp commemorating the census
General information
Country	Indonesia
Authority	Central Bureau of Statistics
Results
Total population	97,018,829 ( 59.8%)
Most populous ​province	East Java (21,823,020)
Least populous ​province	Central Kalimantan (496,522)

The 1961 Indonesian census was the first census of Indonesia as a sovereign state. With a total population of 97,018,829, Indonesia was the world's fifth-most populous country at the time. The census covered all territories in the country, but no enumeration was done in Indonesian-claimed Western New Guinea because it was under Dutch occupation. Instead, an estimated population for the region was included in the final census numbers. During the 1961 census, its population density was 50.9 inhabitants/km².

As the first census since 1930, when Indonesia was still a colony of the Netherlands, the data was used for planning the nation's future development.^[1] One-third of the country's population was under the age of ten, and 65 percent of the population lived on the island of Java, which had been considered overpopulated as early as the 1930s. Demographers highlighted that the large proportion of young people presented a demographic challenge. Given that as many as one-fifth of rural youths were already unemployed, there was a question of whether Indonesia would be able to absorb a future surge of new workers. Agriculture was the dominant industry, employing 72 percent of workers. The census also collected data on school attendance to facilitate education planning. Just under half of the population aged ten and older could read and write in either Latin characters or a non-Latin script.

About 350,000 enumerators were enlisted at the provincial, regency, and district levels. Fields operations began in February 1961, with enumeration and final verification being conducted in October. Tabulation was conducted at the bureau and at the provincial level, but only data for three provinces were ever processed completely. Data for the rest of Indonesia were drawn from a 1 percent sample tabulation of census returns, and many of the original census results have since been lost.