Provinces of Indonesia

Provinces of Indonesia Provinsi di Indonesia
Category	First-level administrative division of a decentralized unitary state
Location	Republic of Indonesia
Created	18 August 1945
Number	38
Populations	South Papua (534,400) – West Java (49,860,300)
Areas	Jakarta 661 km2 (255 sq mi) – Central Kalimantan 153,444 km2 (59,245 sq mi)
Government	Governor
Subdivisions	Regencies and cities

Provinces are the first-level administrative divisions of Indonesia. It is formerly called the first-level provincial region (provinsi daerah tingkat I) before the Reform era. Provinces have a local government, consisting of a governor (Gubernur) and a regional legislative body (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Provinsi). The governor and members of local representative bodies are elected by popular vote for five-year terms, but governors can only serve for two terms. Provincial governments have the authority to regulate and manage their own government affairs, subject to the limits of the central government. The average land area of all 38 provinces in Indonesia is about 49,800 km² (19,200 sq mi), and they had an average population in mid 2023 of 7,334,111 people.

Currently, Indonesia is divided into 38 provinces, nine of which have special autonomous status. The terminology for special status are "Istimewa" and "Khusus", which translates to 'special' or 'designated' in English. Provinces are further divided into regencies and cities (formerly called second-level region regencies/cities or kabupaten/kotamadya daerah tingkat II), which are in turn subdivided into districts (kecamatan). Proposals for the creation of additional provinces (by the splitting of existing provinces) have been considered by the Indonesian government, but further action has been suspended since 2013 under a moratorium declared on any creations of further provinces, regencies or cities. However, in 2022, 9 years later, Central Papua, Highland Papua, South Papua, and Southwest Papua became the youngest provinces in the country.

Article 18 paragraph 1 of the 1945 Constitution states that "the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia is divided into provincial regions and those provincial regions are divided into regencies and city, whereby every one of those provinces, regencies, and municipalities has its regional government, which shall be regulated by laws."

According to the Law on Regional Government (UU 23/2014) the authority of the Provincial Government includes:

1. Development planning and control;
2. Planning, utilization, and community peace;
3. Implementation of public order and public peace;
4. Provision of public facilities and infrastructure;
5. Handling the health sector;
6. Education and allocation of potential human resources;
7. Handling social problems across regencies/cities;
8. Services in the field of manpower across regencies/cities;
9. Facilitating the development of cooperatives, small and medium enterprises, including across districts/cities;
10. Environmental control;
11. Defense services, including across regencies/cities;
12. Population and civil registration services;
13. Government general administration services;
14. Investment administration services, including across regencies/cities;
15. The implementation of other basic services that cannot be carried out by regencies/cities; and
16. Other mandatory affairs mandated by laws and regulations.

The authority of the provincial government are government affairs which are located across regencies/municipalities, government affairs whose users are across regencies/municipalities, government affairs whose benefits or negative impacts lie across regencies/municipalities, government affairs which use more resources. efficient if carried out by the province.

Each province has a local government, headed by a governor and a legislative body (DPRD). The governor and members of local representative bodies are elected by popular vote for five-year terms, but governors can only serve for two terms. The general election to elect members of the DPRDs is conducted simultaneously with the national general election. Previously, the general elections for Governor and Vice Governor were not held simultaneously. However, since 2015 regional head elections have been held simultaneously. Under the plan, simultaneous partial local elections were held in February 2017, June 2018 and December 2020, culminating in simultaneous elections for all local executive posts in November 2024 and then every five years.

Aceh

North
Sumatra

West
Sumatra

Riau

Riau
Islands

Bangka
Belitung

Jambi

South
Sumatra

Bengkulu

Lampung

Banten

Jakarta
↓

West
Java

Central
Java

↑
Yogyakarta

East
Java

Bali

West
Nusa
Tenggara

East Nusa
Tenggara

West
Kalimantan

Central
Kalimantan

North
Kalimantan

East
Kalimantan

South
Kalimantan

North
Sulawesi

North
Maluku

Central
Sulawesi

Gorontalo
↓

West
Sulawesi

South
Sulawesi

Southeast
Sulawesi

Maluku

Southwest
Papua

West
Papua

Central
Papua

Papua

Highland
Papua

South
Papua

Coat of arms	Name[1][2]	Reg. code	ISO[3]	Capital	Largest city	Population (mid 2023) [4]	Area in km2	Density per km2 (mid 2023)[5]	Geographical unit	No. of Cities	No. of Reg.
	Aceh	11	ID-AC	Banda Aceh		5,482,500	56,835	96	Sumatra	5	18
	North Sumatra Sumatera Utara	12	ID-SU	Medan		15,386,600	72,461	212	Sumatra	8	25
	West Sumatra Sumatera Barat	13	ID-SB	Padang		5,757,200	42,120	137	Sumatra	7	12
	Riau	14	ID-RI	Pekanbaru		6,642,900	89,936	74	Sumatra	2	10
	Jambi	15	ID-JA	Jambi		3,679,200	49,027	75	Sumatra	2	9
	South Sumatra Sumatera Selatan	16	ID-SS	Palembang		8,743,500	91,592	101	Sumatra	4	13
	Bengkulu	17	ID-BE	Bengkulu		2,086,000	20,128	104	Sumatra	1	9
	Lampung	18	ID-LA	Bandar Lampung		9,314,000	33,570	277	Sumatra	2	13
	Bangka Belitung Islands Kepulauan Bangka Belitung	19	ID-BB	Pangkal Pinang		1,511,900	16,690	91	Sumatra	1	6
	Riau Islands Kepulauan Riau	21	ID-KR	Tanjung Pinang	Batam	2,152,600	8,270	260	Sumatra	2	5
	Special Capital Region of Jakarta Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta	31	ID-JK	Central Jakarta (de facto)[a]		10,672,100	661	16,146	Java	5	1
	West Java Jawa Barat	32	ID-JB	Bandung	Bekasi	49,860,300	37,045	1,346	Java	9	18
	Central Java Jawa Tengah	33	ID-JT	Semarang		37,541,000	34,337	1,093	Java	6	29
	Special Region of Yogyakarta Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta	34	ID-YO	Yogyakarta		3,736,500	3,171	1,178	Java	1	4
	East Java Jawa Timur	35	ID-JI	Surabaya		41,527,900	48,037	865	Java	9	29
	Banten	36	ID-BT	Serang	Tangerang	12,307,700	9,353	1,316	Java	4	4
	Bali	51	ID-BA	Denpasar		4,404,300	5,590	788	Lesser Sunda Islands	1	8
	West Nusa Tenggara Nusa Tenggara Barat	52	ID-NB	Mataram		5,560,300	19,676	283	Lesser Sunda Islands	2	8
	East Nusa Tenggara Nusa Tenggara Timur	53	ID-NT	Kupang		5,569,100	46,447	120	Lesser Sunda Islands	1	21
	West Kalimantan Kalimantan Barat	61	ID-KB	Pontianak		5,623,300	147,037	38	Kalimantan	2	12
	Central Kalimantan Kalimantan Tengah	62	ID-KT	Palangka Raya		2,773,700	153,444	18	Kalimantan	1	13
	South Kalimantan Kalimantan Selatan	63	ID-KS	Banjarbaru	Banjarmasin	4,222,300	37,135	114	Kalimantan	2	11
	East Kalimantan[6] Kalimantan Timur	64	ID-KI	Samarinda		3,909,700	126,981	31	Kalimantan	3	7
	North Kalimantan Kalimantan Utara	65	ID-KU	Tanjung Selor	Tarakan	730,000	70,101	10	Kalimantan	1	4
	North Sulawesi Sulawesi Utara	71	ID-SA	Manado		2,681,500	14,500	185	Sulawesi	4	11
	Central Sulawesi Sulawesi Tengah	72	ID-ST	Palu		3,086,800	61,606	50	Sulawesi	1	12
	South Sulawesi Sulawesi Selatan	73	ID-SN	Makassar		9,362,300	45,331	207	Sulawesi	3	21
	Southeast Sulawesi Sulawesi Tenggara	74	ID-SG	Kendari		2,749,000	36,160	76	Sulawesi	2	15
	Gorontalo	75	ID-GO	Gorontalo		1,213,200	12,025	101	Sulawesi	1	5
	West Sulawesi Sulawesi Barat	76	ID-SR	Mamuju		1,481,100	16,595	89	Sulawesi	0	6
	Maluku	81	ID-MA	Ambon		1,920,500	46,158	42	Maluku Islands	2	9
	North Maluku Maluku Utara	82	ID-MU	Sofifi	Ternate	1,337,100	32,999	41	Maluku Islands	2	8
	West Papua Papua Barat	92	ID-PB[7]	Manokwari		569,600	60,275	9	Western New Guinea	0	7
	Southwest Papua Papua Barat Daya	96	ID-PD	Sorong		617,700	39,123	16	Western New Guinea	1	5
	Papua	91	ID-PA	Jayapura		1,047,100	82,681	13	Western New Guinea	1	8
	South Papua Papua Selatan	93	ID-PS	Salor	Merauke	534,400	117,849	5	Western New Guinea	0	4
	Central Papua Papua Tengah	94	ID-PT	Wanggar	Timika	1,452,800	61,073	24	Western New Guinea	0	8
	Highland Papua Papua Pegunungan	95	ID-PE	Jayawijaya		1,448,400	51,213	28	Western New Guinea	0	8

The decentralization of some power and autonomy to provinces is called for by Article 18 of the Constitution of Indonesia, and this article was expanded through amendments in October 1999 in the period following the fall of Suharto.^{[8]: 35–37} Some provinces have been granted additional autonomy beyond this. The form this special autonomy takes is not standardized, with provinces gaining different formulations of specific autonomy based on particular political imperatives.^{[8]: 38–39}

• The Special Region of Yogyakarta, which was autonomous under Dutch rule, was (along with Surakarta) given consideration for autonomy as part of Law no. 1 of 1945. Autonomy for Yogyakarta was confirmed directly through Law no. 3 of 1950, the first granting of special autonomy to a province. This status has been maintained until the present, with some tweaks from additional laws.^{[8]: 39–40} Sultan Hamengkubuwono serves as a hereditary governor and Adipati Paku Alam as a hereditary vice-governor.
• Rebellion in Aceh due to demands for a stricter implementation of Islamic law has led to several shifts in political status. Specific autonomy was initially granted to the province through Law no. 24 of 1956. Further autonomy was given through the declaration that Aceh was a "special region" on 23 May 1959, later formalized through Law no. 18 of 1965. Following the fall of Suharto, Law no. 44 of 1999 and Law no. 18 of 2001 created a new framework that was adopted by both parties through Law no. 11 of 2006. This law provides privileged status regarding implementation of Islamic law in religious life, customary life, and education. Aceh also received its own development fund for a period of 20 years.^{[8]: 44–46}
• The province of Papua was granted special autonomy through Law no. 21 of 2001. This was a response to independence movements that had been present in the province since it became part of Indonesia, and occurred alongside the renaming of the province from Irian Jaya to Papua.^{[8]: 42–43 [9]} This gave Papua a greater portion of revenue, autonomy outside reserved areas maintained by the central government, and 20 years of a special development fund. Before special autonomy was implemented, West Papua was split from Papua in 2003, although both kept special autonomy.^[10] The special autonomy for both provinces was renewed in 2021, including a renewal and increase of the special autonomy fund.^[11] Included in this new legislation was the provision to create new provinces, and in July 2022 new national legislation split South Papua, Central Papua, Highland Papua from Papua^[12] through Law Number 14 of 2022, Law Number 15 of 2022, and Law Number 16 of 2022 respectively.^[9] Law No. 29 of 2022 was enacted in December 2022 splitting Southwest Papua from West Papua.^[13] All the split provinces retained their autonomous status.
• The Special Capital Region of Jakarta has its own status, due to it being the country's capital city.^[8]: 39

The provinces are officially grouped into seven geographical units for statistical and national planning purposes, but without administrative function.^[14]

Three-province Sumatra (1948–56) (L) and two-province Sulawesi (1960–64) with present-day regency borders

Upon the independence of Indonesia, eight provinces were established. West Java, Central Java, East Java, and Maluku still exist as of today despite later divisions, while Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Nusa Tenggara, formerly Lesser Sunda (Sunda Kecil) were fully liquidated by dividing them into new provinces. The province of Central Sumatra existed from 1948 to 1957, while East Timor was annexed as a province from 1976 until its power transfer to UNTAET in 1999 prior to its independence as a country in 2002.

Pre-1999 Maluku (L) and Irian Jaya (now Papua, R) with present-day regency borders

• Tanjungpinang to Pekanbaru, Riau (until 1959)
• Jakarta to Bandung, West Java (until 1960)
• Singaraja to Denpasar, Bali (until 1960)
• Soasio, Tidore to Sukarnopura, West Irian (1956–1963)
• Dili, East Timor (1975–1999), later became the capital of Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
• Ternate to Sofifi, North Maluku (until 2010)
• Banjarmasin to Banjarbaru, South Kalimantan (until 2022)

• List of regencies and cities of Indonesia
• Subdivisions of Indonesia