DTSEN Becomes a Common Reference, BPS Explains the Meaning of Deciles

Jakarta, (21/8) - The National Single Data on Social and Economic Affairs (DTSEN) has now become a common reference for the government in supporting the planning, targeting, and evaluation of various programs. With a single, integrated, and continuously updated data reference, ministries/agencies can use the same information base to support policies and programs that are better targeted.

The utilization of DTSEN is regulated under Presidential Instruction Number 4 of 2025. In its implementation, Statistics Indonesia (BPS) is responsible for compiling and managing DTSEN. Meanwhile, ministries/agencies and regional governments play roles according to their respective duties and authorities, including serving as data source providers and supporting continuous data updating.

DTSEN was initially developed by integrating the Integrated Social Welfare Data (DTKS), the Targeting for the Acceleration of Extreme Poverty Eradication (P3KE) data, and the Socio-Economic Registration (Regsosek). The data is then enriched with various administrative data and periodically synchronized with population data managed by the Directorate General of Population and Civil Registration (Directorate General of Dukcapil), Ministry of Home Affairs.

One of the important pieces of information in DTSEN is the decile, which is a grouping of families based on their relative position in terms of welfare. Families are ranked based on various socioeconomic characteristics and then divided into 10 groups, each covering approximately 10 percent of families. Decile 1 represents the group with the relatively lowest level of welfare, while decile 10 represents the group with the relatively highest level of welfare.

Head of Statistics Indonesia (BPS), Amalia Adininggar Widyasanti, explained that the decile figure needs to be understood as a relative ranking.

“Deciles indicate the relative position of a family compared with other families based on various socioeconomic characteristics. Therefore, the decile figure needs to be understood as an illustration of a relative position in the welfare ranking, rather than as a single measure of a family’s economic condition,” Amalia explained in a written statement in Jakarta on Friday (21/8).

Thus, a decile is not an absolute measure of poverty nor a nominal measure of a family’s income or wealth. For example, a family in decile 3 means that it belongs to the third group out of ten groups in the relative welfare ranking. Families within the same decile do not necessarily have the same income, expenditure, or socioeconomic conditions.

The determination of a decile is not based solely on income, ownership of a particular type of goods, electricity capacity, occupation, or any single indicator. The ranking considers various socioeconomic characteristics collectively, including housing conditions, sources of drinking water, cooking fuel and energy, asset ownership, electricity capacity and consumption, family composition, education, employment, health, and disability.

These various pieces of information are considered collectively using the Proxy Means Test (PMT), a statistical method used to estimate a family’s welfare level based on observable characteristics. Because it uses a combination of various characteristics, a single condition or indicator does not, by itself, determine a family’s decile position.

PMT is one of the statistical approaches also used internationally, particularly when household income or consumption information is difficult to obtain or fully verify. This approach allows various observable socioeconomic information to be systematically used to help estimate a family’s relative welfare position.

Deciles function as a ranking tool that helps the government identify groups of people based on their relative welfare position. This information can be used by ministries/agencies as one of the bases for determining the targets or priorities of programs according to the objectives and provisions of each respective program. Therefore, a decile is not a list of beneficiaries of a particular program, and its use must always be understood within the context of the relevant program.

A family’s decile position may change as its socioeconomic conditions change and as its relative position compared with other families changes. Therefore, the relevance of DTSEN needs to be continuously maintained through data updating. A change in one indicator does not automatically result in a change in decile because various characteristics are considered collectively in the ranking process.

DTSEN is updated using various sources, including administrative data, census and survey results, updates from ministries/agencies and regional governments, field verification (ground checks), and updates submitted by the public through available channels.

As of July 10, 2026, DTSEN Version 3 of 2026 covers 290.13 million individual records and 95.98 million family records. This coverage continues to be updated so that the data increasingly reflects the latest socioeconomic conditions of the population.

If members of the public find information about themselves or their families that does not correspond to their actual circumstances, updates can be submitted through the proposal and objection mechanisms available on official channels, including Cek Bansos (cekbansos.kemensos.go.id) or its application, SIKS-NG through village/urban village operators, and Cek DTSEN (dtsen-form.bps.go.id).

Submitting an update does not mean that the decile position will change automatically. The information submitted becomes part of the data updating and recalculation process, so the decile position remains determined based on the applicable data and methodology.

“BPS, together with ministries/agencies and regional governments, continues to update the data to maintain the quality of DTSEN so that it increasingly reflects the conditions of the population. Public participation in ensuring that information about themselves and their families corresponds to their actual circumstances is also an important part of this process,” Amalia said.