August 22, 2026 | 12:01 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Statistics Indonesia (BPS) has addressed public debate surrounding how household deciles are determined. BPS Head Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti stated that a decile reflects a family's relative standing compared to others based on various socioeconomic traits.
"Therefore, the decile figure should be understood as a representation of relative position in welfare rankings, rather than a single measure of a family's economic status," Amalia said in a press release on Friday, August 21, 2026.
As such, she noted, a decile is neither an absolute indicator of poverty nor a nominal figure representing a household's income or wealth.
For context, deciles are divided into 10 tiers, each encompassing approximately 10 percent of households. Decile 1 represents the segment with the lowest relative welfare, whereas Decile 10 comprises the group with the highest relative welfare.
Amalia explained that decile placement is not determined solely by income, ownership of specific assets, electricity usage, occupation, or any single metric.
"The ranking considers a range of socioeconomic characteristics collectively, including housing conditions, drinking water sources, cooking fuel, asset ownership, electricity usage, household composition, education, employment, health, and disability status," she said.
This composite data is evaluated using the Proxy Means Test (PMT) statistical method to estimate household welfare based on observable indicators.
According to Amalia, PMT is an internationally established statistical approach, particularly when household income or consumption data is difficult to collect or fully verify.
Amalia noted that a household's decile standing can shift alongside changes in its socioeconomic circumstances and its relative position compared to other families. Therefore, she emphasized that the accuracy of the National Socioeconomic Single Data (DTSEN) must be maintained through continuous data updates.
"DTSEN updates are drawn from various sources, including administrative data, census and survey findings, updates from ministries, agencies, and local governments, field verification, as well as public submissions through available channels," Amalia said.
As of July 10, 2026, Version 3 of the 2026 DTSEN database covers 290.13 million individual records and 95.98 million household records.
BPS stated that citizens can submit updates through designated channels or community service posts if they find that recorded information about themselves or their families does not match their actual conditions. Revisions can be submitted through official platforms, including the Social Assistance Check portal (cekbansos.kemensos.go.id), SIKS-NG via village and neighborhood operators, or the DTSEN Check portal at dtsen-form.bps.go.id.
However, Amalia clarified that submitting an update does not automatically alter a family's decile status. "The information provided becomes part of the updating and recounting process so that the decile position is still determined based on the applicable data and methods," she said.
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