The Essentials
Food, Electricity, and... what else?
Hello again dear readers. Today let’s zoom out a bit so that we can see the world and Indonesia’s place in it a little better.
As we look at the world we have to realize that hundreds of millions of people are still struggling, although far less than ever before.
For example, the number of people without electricity worldwide has dropped substantially since 2012, although recently (covid-19) the overall number has risen a bit.
The graph below is in hundreds of millions of people. Still mind-bogglingly high.
Of course if you are one of those lucky individuals who are reading this, then indeed you are electrified. And that’s not because of my writing talent lol. It’s because you can switch on a light bulb! Congratulations!
Here’s some other essential indicators, between 2010 — 2020/2021:
As you can see, worldwide we are using less energy to accomplish the same things, but 2.3 billion people still cook inefficiently.
And now let’s look briefly at Indonesia, from a food perspective.
By 2015 the country was able to cut its undernourished population in half. Yet they still have almost 23 million people who eat less than nutritionally sound diets.
Another perspective is that, as seen below, almost 71% of the population uses over 52% of their earnings in order to feed themselves. That makes them 4th among all countries. Not a great statistic.
While Indonesia is indeed struggling, they are considered a lower middle-income country. Here’s how the World Bank categorizes counties by income levels:
What does it mean for you? If you are considering Bali for retirement you will be living in Indonesia. However, the Balinese are relatively prosperous compared to most Indonesians (courtesy of the tourist industry). Still, Bali has a long way to go in order for it to become a pricey place to live. That being said, the tourist areas of Bali don’t operate at all like typical Indonesian towns, and so expect to pay 5X what an Indonesian pays for basic living expenses.
If an Indonesian needs $300 USD to live, you will need $1,500 USD.
Later,
Neill
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