A comparison between the Indian subcontinent and the Indonesian archipelago is for several reasons a rather awkward venture. The sheer difference in size alone, and all that such a difference implies, is enough to deter even the most cautious researcher. Another cause for hesitation is the varying quality of the population data: good statistics for most regions of the subcontinent from 1881 onward, bad statistics for almost all'regions before that date, compared to fairly good statistics for Java for the entire nineteenth century, but virtually worthless data for the Outer Islands during the same period. Finally considerations of a more personal nature can not be regarded as unimportant: I am familiar with the peculiarities of Javanese statistics, much less confident where the Outer Islands are concerned, and more than entirely ignorant of all things Indian. Fortunately I could rely on recent studies regarding the subcontinent, but research on nineteenth century population statistics for the Indonesian Outer Islands is all but non-existent. The sorry state of nineteenth century statistics for the Outer Islands makes one wonder whether anybody can be so foolhardy as to even start sorting them out. So it is hot without serious misgivings that this article has been written.