The distribution of this ethnic and linguistic group is extremely broad, from the islands of the Pacific and the Indian Ocean, to Indochina and the Malay Peninsula in Southeast Asia, as far north as Taiwan, as far south as New Zealand, as far east as Easter Island, which lies to the west of South America, and as far west as the island of Madagascar off the African coast.
當年所稱的「印度尼西亞族」，便是如今大家熟知的「南島民族」。這個民族分佈甚廣，從太平洋及印度洋的島嶼，到東南亞的中南半島與馬來半島，北至台灣，南至紐西蘭，東至南美洲以西的復活島，西至非洲東岸的的馬達加斯加島，總人口約兩億多。