Austronesian · ISO 639-3 ind · id
Indonesian Language Bahasa Indonesia
Indonesian is an Austronesian language spoken by about 199 million people in 3 countries. It is an official language of Indonesia. It is written in the Latin script.
Where Indonesian is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Indonesian
Language family
- Austronesian
- Malayo-Polynesian
- Malayo-Chamic
- Malayic
- Nuclear Malayic
- Standard Malay-Indonesian
- Indonesian
Writing system
Latin script
Related languages
About the Indonesian language
Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) is spoken by about 199 million people, which makes it the 11th most spoken language in the world — just behind Panjabi (200 million) and ahead of Russian (170 million). It belongs to the Austronesian language family and, more precisely, to the Standard Malay-Indonesian group within the Malayo-Chamic branch.
Where is Indonesian spoken?
Indonesian is used in 3 countries. The largest communities live in Indonesia (180 million), Netherlands (319,903) and Singapore (120,569). More than half of the population speaks it in Indonesia — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Share of the population that speaks Indonesian: Indonesia 64% (180 million), Netherlands 1.8% (319,903) and Singapore 2% (120,569).
Indonesian is an official language in 1 country: Indonesia.
Writing system and status
Indonesian is written in the Latin script. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Minangkabau, Betawi, Bukit Malay, Banjar, Pattani Malay, Musi and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 id, ISO 639-3 ind.
Frequently asked questions about Indonesian
How many people speak Indonesian?
Where is Indonesian spoken?
In which countries is Indonesian an official language?
What language family does Indonesian belong to?
What is Indonesian called in Indonesian?
Is Indonesian an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.