Indonesia

Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia) is a nation in Southeast Asia. It is part of the Malay Islands. It has 18,108 islands. People live on about 6,000 of these islands. The most important islands of Indonesia are Java, Bali, Borneo, Sulawesi, and Sumatra. The capital of Indonesia is Jakarta, on Java. The president now is Joko Widodo. Modern Indonesia began on the 17th of August 1945. At 10 o'clock on that Friday morning, Ir. Soekarno read Indonesia's Declaration of Independence. Indonesia's Independence Day is a national holiday.Indonesia is the fourth most populated country in the world with 238,452,952 people (2004 est.) Half of the population lives in Java, There are 111 people per km2. The land area is 1.904 million km2, or slightly smaller than Mexico.

The official language of Indonesia is Bahasa Indonesia, but a total of 737 languages are spoken in different parts of Indonesia. Most of these many languages are only spoken among remote tribal groups. Other languages widely spoken in Indonesia include Javanese, Balinese and Sundanese. Indonesia's neighbors are Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, and East Timor which share land borders with Indonesia. Other nearby countries are Australia to the south, Singapore to the Northwest, and Philippines to the Northeast.

Indonesia has the most active volcanoes of any country in the world. It is also close to fault lines so there are many earthquakes and tsunamis.

Most people in Indonesia follow Islam, but Indonesia is not an Islamic country by law. Indonesia has the largest Muslim population on earth. Other religions Indonesians follow include Christianity (Protestant and Roman Catholic), Hinduism, and Buddhism.