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 (522,215) – West Java (49,405,800)
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.

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 and cities or kabupaten/kotamadya daerah tingkat II), which are in turn subdivided into districts (kecamatan).

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 will be held in February 2017, June 2018, December 2020, culminating in simultaneous elections for all local executive posts on November 2024 and then every five years.

Current provinces

Seven provinces in Indonesia, which are "special autonomous regions" that have special characteristics, are:

• Central Papua, Highland Papua,  Papua, South Papua, Southwest Papua, and  West Papua, which have their special status in the recognition and special respect for indigenous Papuans.

Two provinces that is a "special region" which has "privileged" characteristics:

• Special Region of Jakarta, which has the special status as the financial centre and largest city of Indonesia, and the Governor has more authority, such as appointing and dismissing regional heads in each of the 5 administrative cities and 1 administrative district, and the entire city of Jakarta.

• Special Region of Yogyakarta, which has Sultan Hamengkubuwono as its hereditary governor and Adipati Paku Alam as its hereditary vice-governor. Basically a non-independent sultanate under a republic.

One province that is another "special region" that has both characteristics:

• Aceh, which has the special and privileged status of implementation of Islamic sharia law in religious life, customary life, and education, as well as having regional parties.

Geographical units

The provinces are officially grouped into seven geographical units for statistical and national planning purposes, but without administrative function.^[1]

List of provinces

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

Emblem	Name[3][4]	Reg. code	ISO[5]	Capital	Largest city	Population (mid 2022)[6]	Area km2	Density /km2 (2022)[7]	Geographical unit	No. of Cities	No. of Reg.
	Aceh	11	ID-AC	Banda Aceh		5,407,900	56,835	95	Sumatra	5	18
	Bali	51	ID-BA	Denpasar		4,415,100	5,590	790	Lesser Sunda Islands	1	8
	Bangka Belitung Islands Kepulauan Bangka Belitung	19	ID-BB	Pangkal Pinang		1,494,600	16,690	90	Sumatra	1	6
	Banten	36	ID-BT	Serang	Tangerang	12,252,000	9,353	1,310	Java	4	4
	Bengkulu	17	ID-BE	Bengkulu		2,060,100	20,128	102	Sumatra	1	9
	Central Java Jawa Tengah	33	ID-JT	Semarang		37,032,400	34,337	1,078	Java	6	29
	Central Kalimantan Kalimantan Tengah	62	ID-KT	Palangka Raya		2,741,100	153,444	18	Kalimantan	1	13
	Central Papua Papua Tengah	94	ID-PT	Wanggar	Timika	1,431,000	61,073	23	Western New Guinea	0	8
	Central Sulawesi Sulawesi Tengah	72	ID-ST	Palu		3,066,100	61,606	50	Sulawesi	1	12
	East Java Jawa Timur	35	ID-JI	Surabaya		41,150,000	48,037	857	Java	9	29
	East Kalimantan[8] Kalimantan Timur	64	ID-KI	Samarinda		3,859,800	126,981	30	Kalimantan	3	7
	East Nusa Tenggara Nusa Tenggara Timur	53	ID-NT	Kupang		5,466,300	46,447	118	Lesser Sunda Islands	1	21
	Gorontalo	75	ID-GO	Gorontalo		1,192,700	12,025	99	Sulawesi	1	5
	Highland Papua Papua Pegunungan	95	ID-PE	Jayawijaya	Wamena	1,430,500	51,213	28	Western New Guinea	0	8
	Special Region of Jakarta Daerah Khusus Jakarta	31	ID-JK	Central Jakarta (de facto)[a]		10,680,000	661	16,158	Java	5	1
	Jambi	15	ID-JA	Jambi		3,631,100	49,027	74	Sumatra	2	9
	Lampung	18	ID-LA	Bandar Lampung		9,176,600	33,570	273	Sumatra	2	13
	Maluku	81	ID-MA	Ambon		1,881,700	46,158	41	Maluku Islands	2	9
	North Kalimantan Kalimantan Utara	65	ID-KU	Tanjung Selor	Tarakan	727,800	70,101	10	Kalimantan	1	4
	North Maluku Maluku Utara	82	ID-MU	Sofifi	Ternate	1,319,300	32,999	40	Maluku Islands	2	8
	North Sulawesi Sulawesi Utara	71	ID-SA	Manado		2,659,500	14,500	183	Sulawesi	4	11
	North Sumatra Sumatera Utara	12	ID-SU	Medan		15,115,200	72,461	209	Sumatra	8	25
	Papua	91	ID-PA	Jayapura		1,035,000	82,681	13	Western New Guinea	1	8
	Riau	14	ID-RI	Pekanbaru		6,614,400	89,936	74	Sumatra	2	10
	Riau Islands Kepulauan Riau	21	ID-KR	Tanjung Pinang	Batam	2,179,800	8,270	264	Sumatra	2	5
	Southeast Sulawesi Sulawesi Tenggara	74	ID-SG	Kendari		2,701,700	36,160	75	Sulawesi	2	15
	South Kalimantan Kalimantan Selatan	63	ID-KS	Banjarbaru	Banjarmasin	4,182,100	37,135	113	Kalimantan	2	11
	South Papua Papua Selatan	93	ID-PS	Salor	Merauke	522,200	117,849	4.4	Western New Guinea	0	4
	South Sulawesi Sulawesi Selatan	73	ID-SN	Makassar		9,225,800	45,331	204	Sulawesi	3	21
	South Sumatra Sumatera Selatan	16	ID-SS	Palembang		8,657,000	91,592	100	Sumatra	4	13
	Southwest Papua Papua Barat Daya	96	ID-PD	Sorong		621,904	39,123	16	Western New Guinea	1	5
	West Java Jawa Barat	32	ID-JB	Bandung	Bekasi	49,405,800	37,045	1,334	Java	9	18
	West Kalimantan Kalimantan Barat	61	ID-KB	Pontianak		5,541,400	147,037	38	Kalimantan	2	12
	West Nusa Tenggara Nusa Tenggara Barat	52	ID-NB	Mataram		5,473,700	19,676	278	Lesser Sunda Islands	2	8
	West Papua Papua Barat	92	ID-PB[9]	Manokwari		561,403	60,275	9	Western New Guinea	0	7
	West Sulawesi Sulawesi Barat	76	ID-SR	Mamuju		1,458,600	16,595	88	Sulawesi	0	6
	West Sumatra Sumatera Barat	13	ID-SB	Padang		5,640,600	42,120	134	Sumatra	7	12
	Special Region of Yogyakarta Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta	34	ID-YO	Yogyakarta		3,761,900	3,171	1,186	Java	1	4

Former provinces

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.