Indonesia Faces Aging Population Challenge: Pension Fund Participants Reach 30.67 Million, Coverage Still Limited

Indonesia is beginning to face the challenge of an aging population. As many as 11.97 percent of the population are now elderly, while the number of new pension fund participants reaches 30.67 million people. The Financial Services Authority (OJK) has requested that membership be expanded to accelerate so that more people have financial protection in old age. The Chairperson of the OJK Commissioner Board, Friderica Widyasari Dewi, said that the proportion of Indonesia's elderly population had exceeded the threshold of 10 percent for the aging population category. The figure is projected to continue to increase to 20.31 percent by 2045. On the other hand, Indonesia still enjoys a demographic bonus with about 68.94 percent of the population in the productive age. "This means that we have a very important window of opportunity to encourage the productive age population to start preparing for retirement from now before the demographic pressure becomes greater," Friderica said at the Indonesia Pension Fund Summit (IPFS) 2026 in Jakarta, quoted from Antara, Friday, September 25. The woman, who is familiarly called Kiki, said the pension fund industry is actually continuing to grow. The number of participants increased from 27.27 million people in 2022 to 30.67 million people as of July 2026. The total assets of the pension fund industry have also reached Rp1,699.99 trillion. However, this growth has not been followed by adequate membership coverage. Compared to the number of Indonesian workers, which reaches more than 150 million people, the number of pension fund participants is still relatively small. "But we do see one side continue to grow, but if we look at the percentage with the number of workers who are currently more than 150 million, of course the percentage is still very small," said Kiki. According to her, this condition shows the still large opportunity for the development of the pension fund industry. Moreover, Indonesia still has a large number of productive age population that can be encouraged to start preparing for retirement. To expand old-age protection, OJK emphasizes four steps to strengthen the pension fund industry. First, studying the practice of managing pension funds from various countries while still adjusting it to the needs and characteristics of the Indonesian people. Second, strengthen the alignment between mandatory and voluntary pension programs. The two need to complement each other with a clear division of roles so that old-age protection is wider. Third, strengthen cooperation between parties through programs that have measurable targets and can monitor their implementation. Fourth, increase the literacy and access of the public to pension funds. Education is not enough to make the public understand the importance of saving for old age, but also needs to encourage them to become participants in pension programs. With the proportion of the elderly population projected to reach 20.31 percent in 2045, OJK assesses that the time when Indonesia still has a large number of productive age population needs to be used to expand pension protection from now on.