While Java is home to more than 2,000 people per square mile, many of Indonesia’s other islands are less densely populated. Sumatra, even after more than 40 years of being the primary destination for transmigrants and the location of one of Indonesia’s largest and fastest growing urban centers, has a population density of only IS5 people per square mile. Kalimantan, with more than 28 percent of Indonesia’s land mass, has only five percent of the country’s population and a density offewer than 45 people per square mile. IrianJaya, where there are fewer than ten people per square mile, has less than one percent of the country’s population even though it makes up 22 percent of Indonesia’s land area. Contributing to the overcrowded conditions on Java, despite family planning and transmigration, is a steady influx of Indonesians from the outer islands. Ironically, these "migrants" come to Java because their own areas are so underpopulated that they cannot support the industrial facilities that increase employment and wages. Busy commercial and industrial cities on Java) such as Jakarta and Surabaya, provide jobs not only for the indigenous Javanese, but for countless people from other parts of the country, including North and West Sumatra, North and South Sulawesi and the Moluccas.

The following table contrasts Java’s population with the number of people living elsewhere in Indonesia. Derived from Indonesia’s 1990 census results, which include the resettlemen of some 6.5 million people under the government-sponsored transmigration program, the table underscores the continuing population imbalance and the relative emptiness of the islands outside of Java/Bali/Madura