Which country has the world’s largest population of wild orangutans?

Indonesia has the world’s largest population of wild orangutans.

Three orangutan species live in Indonesia: the Sumatran orangutan, the Tapanuli orangutan, and the Bornean orangutan populations found on the Indonesian part of Borneo, known as Kalimantan. Malaysia also has wild Bornean orangutans, but Indonesia contains the greater share of the remaining range.

Orangutans are native only to the islands of Sumatra and Borneo. The Tapanuli orangutan, recognized as a distinct species in 2017, has one of the smallest ranges of any great ape and is restricted to the Batang Toru ecosystem in North Sumatra.

Habitat loss from logging, agriculture, roads, and fires has caused severe declines. Orangutans are great apes, not monkeys, and are known for their reddish hair, intelligence, and largely arboreal lifestyle. Their name comes from Malay and Indonesian words meaning “person of the forest.”