Much infrastructure was destroyed as well, and reconstruction is expected to take billions of dollars and several years.
Yudhoyono told reporters the process was on track to finish meeting emergency food, housing and medical needs by the end of March, and move to a reconstruction phase that would start in a massive way in July.
But he added: "I have instructed all agencies, all government apparatus that we have to accelerate the process, the sooner the better".
Earlier in his one-day visit, his sixth trip to the province on the northern tip of Sumatra since the tsunami, he visited hundreds of refugees at a newly built camp.
The camp is one of many being built to improve refugees' living conditions as they wait for the reconstruction process to open up a return to a more normal life.
At the riverside Lambaro camp near the main road to Banda Aceh airport, Yudhoyono and his wife moved down a line of residents - many women wearing Muslim headscarves in this heavily Islamic province - shaking hands and offering words of consolation, as school children sang in welcome.
Some residents told Reuters that while the new shelter was better than the crowded, muddy conditions they experienced in earlier camps, they hoped Yudhoyono's visit might bring aid ranging from better food in the camp to meaningful jobs.