Provinces of Indonesia explained

Provinces of Indonesia Indonesian: Provinsi di Indonesia
Category:	First-level administrative division of a decentralized unitary state
Territory:	Republic of Indonesia
Start Date:	18 August 1945
Current Number:	38
Population Range:	South Papua (534,400) – West Java (49,860,300)
Area Range:	Jakarta 661km2 – Central Kalimantan 153444km2
Government:	Governor
Subdivision:	Regencies and cities

Provinces are the first-level administrative divisions of Indonesia. It is formerly called the first-level provincial region (Indonesian: provinsi daerah tingkat I) before the Reform era. Provinces have a local government, consisting of a governor (Indonesian: Gubernur) and a regional legislative body (Indonesian: 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 49800km2, 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 "Indonesian: Istimewa" and "Indonesian: 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 Indonesian: kabupaten/kotamadya daerah tingkat II), which are in turn subdivided into districts (Indonesian: kecamatan). Proposals for the creation of additional provinces (by the splitting of existing provinces) have been considrered 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.

Background

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 on November 2024 and then every five years.

Current provinces

Emblem	Name^[1]		ISO^[2]	Capital	Largest city	Population (mid 2023) ^[3]	Area in km^2	Density per km^2 (mid 2023)^[4]	Geographical unit	No. of Cities	No. of
		11					5,482,500	56,835	96		5	18
	North Sumatra	12					15,386,600	72,461	212		8	25
	West Sumatra	13					5,757,200	42,120	137		7	12
	Riau	14					6,642,900	89,936	74		2	10
	Jambi	15					3,679,200	49,027	75		2	9
	South Sumatra	16					8,743,500	91,592	101		4	13
		17					2,086,000	20,128	104		1	9
		18					9,314,000	33,570	277		2	13
	Bangka Belitung Islands	19					1,511,900	16,690	91		1	6
	Riau Islands	21					2,152,600	8,270	260		2	5
	Special Capital Region of Jakarta	31					10,672,100	661	16,146		5	1
	West Java	32					49,860,300	37,045	1,346		9	18
	Central Java	33					37,541,000	34,337	1,093		6	29
		34					3,736,500	3,171	1,178		1	4
	East Java	35					41,527,900	48,037	865		9	29
		36					12,307,700	9,353	1,316		4	4
		51					4,404,300	5,590	788		1	8
	West Nusa Tenggara	52					5,560,300	19,676	283		2	8
	East Nusa Tenggara	53					5,569,100	46,447	120		1	21
	West Kalimantan	61					5,623,300	147,037	38		2	12
	Central Kalimantan	62					2,773,700	153,444	18		1	13
	South Kalimantan	63					4,222,300	37,135	114		2	11
	East Kalimantan^[5]	64					3,909,700	126,981	31		3	7
	North Kalimantan	65					730,000	70,101	10		1	4
	North Sulawesi	71					2,681,500	14,500	185		4	11
	Central Sulawesi	72					3,086,800	61,606	50		1	12
	South Sulawesi	73					9,362,300	45,331	207		3	21
	Southeast Sulawesi	74					2,749,000	36,160	76		2	15
		75					1,213,200	12,025	101		1	5
	West Sulawesi	76					1,481,100	16,595	89		0	6
		81					1,920,500	46,158	42		2	9
	North Maluku	82					1,337,100	32,999	41		2	8
		92		^[6]			569,600	60,275	9		0	7
	Southwest Papua	96					617,700	39,123	16		1	5
		91					1,047,100	82,681	13		1	8
	South Papua	93					534,400	117,849	5		0	4
	Central Papua	94					1,452,800	61,073	24		0	8
	Highland Papua	95					1,448,400	51,213	28		0	8

Special autonomy

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.^[7] 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.^[7]

• 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.^[7] 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.^[7]
• 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.^[7] 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.^[8] The special autonomy for both provinces was renewed in 2021, including a renewal and increase of the special autonomy fund.^[9] 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^[10] through Law Number 14 of 2022, Law Number 15 of 2022, and Law Number 16 of 2022 respectively.^[11] Law No. 29 of 2022 was enacted in December 2022 splitting Southwest Papua from West Papua.^[12]
• The Special Capital Region of Jakarta has its own status, due to it being the country's capital city.^[7]

Geographical units

The provinces are officially grouped into seven geographical units for statistical and national planning purposes, but without administrative function.^[13]

Geographical unit	Provinces	Population (mid-2023)^[14]	Largest city	Highest point
Sumatra	Aceh, the Bangka Belitung Islands, Bengkulu, Jambi, Lampung, North Sumatra, Riau, the Riau Islands, South Sumatra, and West Sumatra	60,756,400	Medan	Mount Kerinci 3,805 m (12484 ft)
Java	Banten, Central Java, East Java, the Special Capital Region of Jakarta, the Special Region of Yogyakarta, and West Java	155,645,500	Jakarta	Mount Semeru 3,678 m (12067 ft)
Nusa Tenggara (Lesser Sunda Islands)	Bali, West Nusa Tenggara, and East Nusa Tenggara	15,533,700	Denpasar	Mount Rinjani 3,726 m (12,224 ft)
Kalimantan	Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, North Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, and West Kalimantan	17,259,000	Samarinda	Mount Bukit Raya 2,278 m (7,474 ft)
Sulawesi	Central Sulawesi, Gorontalo, North Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, and West Sulawesi	20,573,900	Makassar	Latimojong 3,478 m (11,411 ft)
Maluku Islands	Maluku and North Maluku	3,401,600	Ambon	Mount Binaiya 3,027 m (9,931 ft)
Papua (Western New Guinea)	Central Papua, Highland Papua, Papua, South Papua, Southwest Papua, and West Papua	5,670,000	Jayapura	Puncak Jaya 4,884 m (16,024 ft)

Former provinces

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.

Province	Capital	Period	Successor(s)
Special Region of Surakarta (Daerah Istimewa Surakarta)^[15]	Surakarta	1945–1946	Central Java
Sumatra	Bukittinggi / Medan	1945–1948	Central Sumatra North Sumatra South Sumatra
Kalimantan^[16]	Banjarmasin	1945–1956	East Kalimantan South Kalimantan West Kalimantan
Nusa Tenggara^[17]	Singaraja	1945–1958	Bali East Nusa Tenggara West Nusa Tenggara
Sulawesi^[18]	Makassar / Manado	1945–1960	North-Central Sulawesi South-Southeast Sulawesi
Central Sumatra (Sumatera Tengah)^[19] ^[20]	Bukittinggi	1948–1957	Jambi Riau West Sumatra
North-Central Sulawesi (Sulawesi Utara-Tengah)^[21]	Manado	1960–1964	North Sulawesi Central Sulawesi
South-Southeast Sulawesi (Sulawesi Selatan-Tenggara)	Makassar	1960–1964	South Sulawesi Southeast Sulawesi
East Timor (Timor Timur)^[22]	Dili	1976–1999	Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste

New provinces made from currently-existing provinces

New province (current name)	Year	New province (then name)	Province of origin
Special Region of Yogyakarta	1950	Yogyakarta	Central Java
Aceh	1956	Aceh	North Sumatra
Central Kalimantan	1958	Central Kalimantan	South Kalimantan
Jakarta Special Capital Region	1959	Greater Jakarta	West Java
Lampung	1964	Lampung	South Sumatra
Bengkulu	1967	Bengkulu	South Sumatra
North Maluku	1999	North Maluku	Maluku
Banten	2000	Banten	West Java
Bangka Belitung Islands	2000	Bangka Belitung Islands	South Sumatra
Gorontalo	2000	Gorontalo	North Sulawesi
Riau Islands	2002	Riau Islands	Riau
West Papua	2003	West Irian Jaya	Irian Jaya
West Sulawesi	2004	West Sulawesi	South Sulawesi
North Kalimantan	2012	North Kalimantan	East Kalimantan
	2022	Central Papua	Papua
	2022	Highland Papua	Papua
	2022	South Papua	Papua
	2022	Southwest Papua	West Papua

Renamed provinces

Year	Old name (Indonesian)	Old name (English)	New name (Indonesian)	New name (English)	Current name
1954	Sunda Kecil	Lesser Sunda	Nusa Tenggara	Nusa Tenggara
1959	Aceh	Aceh	Daerah Istimewa Aceh	Aceh Special Region	Aceh
1961	Jakarta Raya	Greater Jakarta	Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta Raya	Greater Jakarta Special Capital Region	Jakarta Special Capital Region
1973	Irian Barat	West Irian	Irian Jaya	Irian Jaya	Papua
1990	Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta Raya	Greater Jakarta Special Capital Region	Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta	Jakarta Special Capital Region	Special Region of Jakarta
2001	Daerah Istimewa Aceh	Aceh Special Region	Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam	State of Aceh, the Abode of Peace	Aceh
2002	Irian Jaya	Irian Jaya	Papua	Papua	Papua
2007	Irian Jaya Barat	West Irian Jaya	Papua Barat	West Papua	West Papua
2009	Nanggroë Aceh Darussalam	State of Aceh, the Abode of Peace	Aceh	Aceh	Aceh

Former provincial capitals

• 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)

See also

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

Notes and References

1. Web site: Data Wilayah – Kementerian Dalam Negeri – Republik Indonesia . 2011-02-16 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120222192208/http://www.depdagri.go.id/pages/data-wilayah . 2012-02-22 . dead .
2. [ISO 3166-2:ID]
3. Badan Pusat Statistik/Statistics Indonesia, Jakarta, 2024.
4. Badan Pusat Statistik/Statistics Indonesia, Jakarta, 2024.
5. Figures adjusted to take account of the separation of Tarakan city and four regencies, as confirmed by Badan Pusat Statistik, to form the new province of North Kalimantan, listed separately in this table.
6. [West Papua (province)|West Papua]
7. Ahmad Ainun Najib . Indarja . Special Autonomy Dilemma in the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia . Syiah Kuala Law Journal . 7 . 1 . April 2023 . 10.24815/sklj.v7i1.28611 . 32-49.
8. Book: Development in Papua after special autonomy . Regional Dynamics in a Decentralized Indonesia . Budy P. Resosudarmo . Julius A. Mollet. Umbu R. Raya . Hans Kaiwai . 10.1355/9789814519175-025 . ISEAS Publishing . 2014 . 434.
9. News: Indonesia Passes New Papuan Autonomy Law; Separatists Reject it as Unsatisfactory . Ronna Nirmala . 15 July 2021 . 20 May 2024.
10. News: Indonesia passes contentious law to create more provinces in Papua . CNN . 1 July 2022 . 19 May 2024.
11. Web site: Naming process of new provinces in Papua Region, Indonesia . United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names . 3 May 2023 . 19 May 2024 . 2.
12. News: Southwest Papua officially becomes Indonesia's 38th province . Antara . 9 December 2022 . 19 May 2024.
13. [ISO 3166-2:ID]
14. Badan Pusat Statistik, Jakarta, 2024.
15. Web site: Pangeran Surakarta Ajukan Piagam Soekarno Jadi Bukti Keistimewaan . 2023-06-20 . Constitutional Court of Indonesia.
16. Act. 25. 1956. Undang-Undang Nomor 25 Tahun 1956 . hukumonline.com . Act Number 25 of 1956 . id.
17. Undang-Undang Nomor 64 Tahun 1958. Act. 64. 1958. hukumonline.com . Act Number 64 of 1958. id.
18. Peraturan Pemerintah Pengganti Undang-Undang Nomor 47 Tahun 1960 . Government Regulation in Lieu of Law Number 47 of 1960 . id . 47. 1970. Government Regulation in Lieu of Law.
19. Peraturan Pemerintah Nomor 21 Tahun 1950 . Government Regulation Number 21 of 1950 . https://web.archive.org/web/20111211063105/http://hukum.unsrat.ac.id/pp/pp_21_1950.pdf . id . Government Regulation. 21. 1950 . 2011-12-11 . dead.
20. Undang-Undang Darurat Nomor 19 Tahun 1957 . Ordinance-as-Act Number 19 Year 1957 . id . Ordinance-as-Act. 19. 1957.
21. Act. 13. 1964. Undang-Undang Nomor 13 Tahun 1964 . Act Number 13 of 1964 . hukumonline.com . Indonesian.
22. Undang-Undang Republik Indonesia Nomor 7 Tahun 1976 . Act. 7. 1976. Act of the Republic of Indonesia Number 7 of 1976 . https://web.archive.org/web/20181114182227/http://www.bphn.go.id/data/documents/76uu007.pdf . id . 2018-11-14 . dead.