Digital Payments and Financial Inclusion in Indonesia: Evidence from 2020–2025
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65310/a2jx9867Keywords:
digital payments, financial inclusion, Indonesia, QRIS, secondary dataAbstract
Indonesia’s QRIS payment network expanded substantially during 2020–2025, while financial inclusion continued to differ across population groups. This study examined the scale of QRIS acceptance and the distribution of formally reported financial inclusion without assuming that the two indicators measure the same outcome. A descriptive secondary-data analysis compiled annual merchant counts and selected payment-system indicators from Bank Indonesia and compared their measurement scope with subgroup estimates from the 2024 National Survey of Financial Literacy and Inclusion. Merchant counts rose from 5.80 million in 2020 to 42.75 million in 2025, corresponding to a five-year compound annual growth rate of approximately 49.1%; Bank Indonesia reported 59.53 million QRIS users in 2025. The 2024 survey recorded financial inclusion of 75.02% and financial literacy of 65.43%, with inclusion of 78.41% in urban areas and 70.13% in rural areas. The comparison documents rapid growth in payment acceptance alongside a cross-sectional 8.28-percentage-point geographic inclusion difference. It does not identify changes in inclusion gaps over time or any causal effect of QRIS adoption. The findings support separate monitoring of network availability, active payment use, consumer capability, and the distribution of formal financial-service participation.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Fitrahtul Saahira Khairunnisa, Humairourrohmah binti Mastor, Khodijah Asshofiah, Maryam Maryam, Geesara T. K., Faisal Rasheed, Kongkon Bordoloi (Author)
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