This paper aims to compile and evaluate the information on the population of Southeast Asia in the Mid-nineteenth century appearing in the Journal of the Indian Archiperago and Eastern Asia, which was published from 1847 to 1860 in Singapore. The journal contains considerable numbers of population figures for the pre-census period, reflecting the people's and the editor's interests in the general situation surounding Singapore in this period. The information on population covers Sumatra, the Malay Peninsula, the Straits Settlements, Java, Bali, Lombok, Sulawesi, Borneo, and other parts of insular Southeast Asia.
 The general tendency of the population counts of insular Southeast Asia in this period by the Europeans is toward underestimation. This is especially true for the inland areas of the larger islands, which were remote from the European sphere of influence. Populations of the small islands located on commercial routes are reported relatively accurately or even overestimated. Populations of the European settlements are sometimes overestimated and their growth rates tends to be exaggerated. Underestimation of native populations by the Europeans is to be expected, but despite this bias it is clear that the population density in insular Southeast Asia was small enough to attract planters and settlers.

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