Language

The official national language, Indonesian (Indonesian: Bahasa Indonesia), is universally taught in schools and is spoken by nearly every Indonesian. It is the language of business, politics, national media, education and academia. It was originally a lingua franca for most of the region, including present-day Malaysia and is thus closely related to Malay. It was first promoted as a national language in 1928 by the Indonesian National Party (PNI), accepted by the Dutch as the de facto language for the colony, and then declared the official language after independence. Yet, in isolated areas - even on the major islands - it is not uncommon to find villagers who are not familiar with the Indonesian language.

Most Indonesians speak at least one of the several hundred local languages (bahasa daerah), often as their first language. Of these, Javanese is the most widely-spoken language, as it is the language of the largest ethnic group. Papua on the other hand, has as many as five hundred or more indigenous Papuan or Austronesian languages in a region of just 2.7 million people.