Provinces of Indonesia Provinsi Indonesia
Category	First level administrative division of a unitary state
Location	Indonesia
Created	18 August 1945
Number	38
Populations	Smallest: 522,215 (South Papua) Largest: 49,405,800 (West Java)
Areas	Smallest: 661 km2 (255 sq mi) (Jakarta) Largest: 153,444 km2 (59,245 sq mi) (Central Kalimantan)
Government	Governor
Subdivisions	Regencies and cities

Provinces of Indonesia are the 38 administrative divisions of Indonesia and the highest tier of the local government (formerly called first-level provincial region or provinsi daerah tingkat I). 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

After the creation of Southwest Papua, Indonesia now has 38 provinces: 29 ordinary provinces and 9 provinces that have special status. The 1945 Constitution mentions that the state of Indonesia acknowledges and respects the special status of some of its regional governments. The special status is divided into two separate characteristics which in Indonesian are "Istimewa" and "Khusus". The main meaning for both is special in English, however, Istimewa could also be translated to "privileged".

Seven provinces in Indonesia 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.
• Special Capital Region of Jakarta, which has the special status as the capital city of Indonesia.

One province has "privileged" characteristics:

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

One province has both characteristics:

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

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

Geographical units

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

Table of provinces

Provinces of Indonesia^[3][4]

Arms	Province	Indonesian name	Indonesian acronym	ISO[5]	Capital	Largest city	Population (mid-2022 estimate)[6]	Area (km2)	Density (/km2) (2022)[7]	Geographical unit	No. of cities & regencies	No. of cities	No. of regencies
	Aceh	Aceh	Aceh	ID - AC	Banda Aceh		5,407,900	56,835	95	Sumatra	23	5	18
	Bali	Bali	Bali	ID - BA	Denpasar		4,415,100	5,590	790	Lesser Sunda Islands	9	1	8
	Bangka Belitung Islands	Kepulauan Bangka Belitung	Babel	ID - BB	Pangkal Pinang		1,494,600	16,690	90	Sumatra	7	1	6
	Banten	Banten	Banten	ID - BT	Serang	Tangerang	12,252,000	9,353	1,310	Java	8	4	4
	Bengkulu	Bengkulu	Bengkulu	ID - BE	Bengkulu		2,060,100	20,128	102	Sumatra	10	1	9
	Central Java	Jawa Tengah	Jateng	ID - JT	Semarang		37,032,400	34,337	1,078	Java	35	6	29
	Central Kalimantan	Kalimantan Tengah	Kalteng	ID - KT	Palangka Raya		2,741,100	153,444	18	Kalimantan	14	1	13
	Central Papua	Papua Tengah	Pateng	ID - PT	Nabire	Timika	1,431,000	61,073	23	Western New Guinea	8	0	8
	Central Sulawesi	Sulawesi Tengah	Sulteng	ID - ST	Palu		3,066,100	61,606	50	Sulawesi	13	1	12
	East Java	Jawa Timur	Jatim	ID - JI	Surabaya		41,150,000	48,037	857	Java	38	9	29
	East Kalimantan[8]	Kalimantan Timur	Kaltim	ID - KI	Samarinda		3,859,800	126,981	30	Kalimantan	10	3	7
	East Nusa Tenggara	Nusa Tenggara Timur	NTT	ID - NT	Kupang		5,466,300	46,447	118	Lesser Sunda Islands	22	1	21
	Gorontalo	Gorontalo	Gorontalo	ID - GO	Gorontalo		1,192,700	12,025	99	Sulawesi	6	1	5
	Highland Papua	Papua Pegunungan	Pagun	ID - PE	Wamena		1,430,500	51,213	28	Western New Guinea	8	0	8
	Special Capital Region of Jakarta	Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta	DKI Jakarta	ID - JK	Central Jakarta (de facto)[a]		10,680,000	661	16,158	Java	6	5	1
	Jambi	Jambi	Jambi	ID - JA	Jambi		3,631,100	49,027	74	Sumatra	11	2	9
	Lampung	Lampung	Lampung	ID - LA	Bandar Lampung		9,176,600	33,570	273	Sumatra	15	2	13
	Maluku	Maluku	Maluku	ID - MA	Ambon		1,881,700	46,158	41	Maluku Islands	11	2	9
	North Kalimantan	Kalimantan Utara	Kaltara	ID - KU	Tanjung Selor	Tarakan	727,800	70,101	10	Kalimantan	5	1	4
	North Maluku	Maluku Utara	Malut	ID - MU	Sofifi	Ternate	1,319,300	32,999	40	Maluku Islands	10	2	8
	North Sulawesi	Sulawesi Utara	Sulut	ID - SA	Manado		2,659,500	14,500	183	Sulawesi	15	4	11
	North Sumatra	Sumatra Utara	Sumut	ID - SU	Medan		15,115,200	72,461	209	Sumatra	33	8	25
	Papua	Papua[b]	Papua	ID - PA	Jayapura		1,035,000	82,681	13	Western New Guinea	9	1	8
	Riau	Riau	Riau	ID - RI	Pekanbaru		6,614,400	89,936	74	Sumatra	12	2	10
	Riau Islands	Kepulauan Riau	Kepri	ID - KR	Tanjung Pinang	Batam	2,179,800	8,270	264	Sumatra	7	2	5
	Southeast Sulawesi	Sulawesi Tenggara	Sultra	ID - SG	Kendari		2,701,700	36,160	75	Sulawesi	17	2	15
	South Kalimantan	Kalimantan Selatan	Kalsel	ID - KS	Banjarbaru	Banjarmasin	4,182,100	37,135	113	Kalimantan	13	2	11
	South Papua	Papua Selatan	Pasel	ID - PS	Merauke		522,200	117,849	4.4	Western New Guinea	4	0	4
	South Sulawesi	Sulawesi Selatan	Sulsel	ID - SN	Makassar		9,225,800	45,331	204	Sulawesi	24	3	21
	South Sumatra	Sumatra Selatan	Sumsel	ID - SS	Palembang		8,657,000	86,772	100	Sumatra	17	4	13
	Southwest Papua	Papua Barat Daya	PBD		Sorong		621,904	39,123	16	Western New Guinea	6	1	5
	West Java	Jawa Barat	Jabar	ID - JB	Bandung	Bekasi	49,405,800	37,045	1,334	Java	27	9	18
	West Kalimantan	Kalimantan Barat	Kalbar	ID - KB	Pontianak		5,541,400	147,037	38	Kalimantan	14	2	12
	West Nusa Tenggara	Nusa Tenggara Barat	NTB	ID - NB	Mataram		5,473,700	19,676	278	Lesser Sunda Islands	10	2	8
	West Papua	Papua Barat[c]	Pabar	ID - PB[9]	Manokwari		561,403	60,275	9	Western New Guinea	7	0	7
	West Sulawesi	Sulawesi Barat	Sulbar	ID - SR	Mamuju		1,458,600	16,595	88	Sulawesi	6	0	6
	West Sumatra	Sumatra Barat	Sumbar	ID - SB	Padang		5,640,600	42,120	134	Sumatra	19	7	12
	Special Region of Yogyakarta	Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta	DIY	ID - YO	Yogyakarta		3,761,900	3,171	1,186	Java	5	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.

New provinces made from currently-existing provinces

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

Provinces in Western New Guinea, after the split of Papua Province into four provinces in June 2022^[17] but before the split of West Papua Province into two provinces in December 2022^[18]

Renamed provinces

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)