This is a list of the most populous

cities A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

in Indonesia. It excludes urban-characterized settlements such as

regency seat A regency seat ( id, Ibu kota kabupaten) is an capital or seat of government of a regency in Indonesia. It is roughly equivalent of county seat in the United States or county town in the United Kingdom. Legally, regency seats are not administrati ...

s, which does not have city status. Indonesia has 93 cities classified as ''kota'' (city) and one provincial-level

capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, department, or other subnational entity, usually as its seat of the government. A capital is typically a city that physically encompasses t ...

. Population figures are taken from the 2020 census by

Statistics Indonesia Statistics Indonesia ( id, Badan Pusat Statistik, BPS, ), is a non-departmental government institute of Indonesia that is responsible for conducting statistical surveys. Its main customer is the government, but statistical data is also availabl ...

(BPS).

Jakarta Jakarta (; , bew, Jakarte), officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta ( id, Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta) is the capital city, capital and list of Indonesian cities by population, largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coa ...

is the largest city and the only

megacity A megacity is a very large city, typically with a population of more than 10 million people. Precise definitions vary: the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in its 2018 "World Urbanization Prospects" report counted urban ...

in Indonesia, with a population of 10.56 million. As a

primate city A primate city is a city that is the largest in its country, province, state, or region, and disproportionately larger than any others in the urban hierarchy. A ''primate city distribution'' is a rank-size distribution that has one very large c ...

, Jakarta is nearly four times larger than the second largest city

Surabaya Surabaya ( jv, ꦱꦸꦫꦧꦪ or jv, ꦯꦹꦫꦨꦪ; ; ) is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Java and the second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern border of Java island, on the M ...

. Jakarta's status is unique compared to other cities in Indonesia, since it is technically a

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions out ...

with a city management. It is subdividied into five administrative cities, which are not

self-governed __NOTOC__ Self-governance, self-government, or self-rule is the ability of a person or group to exercise all necessary functions of regulation without intervention from an external authority. It may refer to personal conduct or to any form of ...

(without

municipal council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

nor

government budget A government budget is a document prepared by the government and/or other political entity presenting its anticipated government revenues, tax revenues (Inheritance tax, income tax, corporation tax, import taxes) and proposed government expenditu ...

). All five of Jakarta's

satellite cities Satellite cities or satellite towns are smaller municipalities that are adjacent to a principal city which is the core of a metropolitan area. They differ from mere suburbs, subdivisions and especially bedroom communities in that they have m ...

also have passed one million mark in population, with the largest one being

Bekasi Bekasi (, su, ) is a city in West Java, Indonesia, located on the eastern border of Jakarta.the city of planet Bekasi is his nickname.It serves as a commuter city within the Jakarta metropolitan area. According to the 2020 Census by Statistic ...

. The other largest cities by

region In geography, regions, otherwise referred to as zones, lands or territories, are areas that are broadly divided by physical characteristics ( physical geography), human impact characteristics ( human geography), and the interaction of humanity an ...

include

Medan Medan (; English: ) is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of North Sumatra, as well as a regional hub and financial centre of Sumatra. According to the National Development Planning Agency, Medan is one of the four mai ...

(

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

, also the largest outside of

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mo ...

Samarinda Samarinda is the capital city of the Indonesian province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo. The city lies on the banks of the Mahakam River with a land area of . Samarinda ranks first on East Kalimantan Human Development Index and it ...

(

Kalimantan Kalimantan () is the Indonesian portion of the island of Borneo. It constitutes 73% of the island's area. The non-Indonesian parts of Borneo are Brunei and East Malaysia. In Indonesia, "Kalimantan" refers to the whole island of Borneo. In 2019, ...

Denpasar Denpasar (; Balinese: ᬤᬾᬦ᭄ᬧᬲᬃ) is the capital of Bali and the main gateway to the island. The city is also a hub for other cities in the Lesser Sunda Islands. With the rapid growth of the tourism industry in Bali, Denpasar has e ...

(

Lesser Sunda Islands The Lesser Sunda Islands or nowadays known as Nusa Tenggara Islands ( id, Kepulauan Nusa Tenggara, formerly ) are an archipelago in Maritime Southeast Asia, north of Australia. Together with the Greater Sunda Islands to the west they make up ...

Makassar Makassar (, mak, ᨆᨀᨔᨑ, Mangkasara’, ) is the capital of the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, Surabaya, Meda ...

(

Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu ...

), Ambon (

Maluku Islands The Maluku Islands (; Indonesian: ''Kepulauan Maluku'') or the Moluccas () are an archipelago in the east of Indonesia. Tectonically they are located on the Halmahera Plate within the Molucca Sea Collision Zone. Geographically they are located ...

), and

Jayapura Jayapura (formerly Dutch: ''Hollandia'') is the capital and largest city of the Indonesian province of Papua. It is situated on the northern coast of New Guinea island and covers an area of . The city borders the Pacific Ocean and Yos Sudar ...

(

Western New Guinea Western New Guinea, also known as Papua, Indonesian New Guinea, or Indonesian Papua, is the western half of the Melanesian island of New Guinea which is administered by Indonesia. Since the island is alternatively named as Papua, the region ...

). Jayapura is also the fastest-growing city Indonesia, at 55.23% in a decade. Most of the provinces' largest cities in Indonesia are also their capital cities. The exceptions are

(

West Java West Java ( id, Jawa Barat, su, ᮏᮝ ᮊᮥᮜᮧᮔ᮪, romanized ''Jawa Kulon'') is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten ...

Tangerang Tangerang ( Sundanese: , ) is a city in the province of Banten, Indonesia. Located on the western border of Jakarta, it is the third largest urban centre in the Greater Jakarta metropolitan area after Jakarta and Bekasi; the sixth largest cit ...

(

Banten Banten ( id, Banten; Sundanese: , romanized ''Banten'') is the westernmost province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capital Region of Jakarta on the east, the Ja ...

Batam Batam is the largest city in the province of Riau Islands, Indonesia. The city administrative area covers three main islands of Batam, Rempang, and Galang (collectively called Barelang), as well as several small islands. Batam Island is the c ...

(

Riau Islands The Riau Islands ( id, Kepulauan Riau) is a province of Indonesia. It comprises a total of 1,796 islands scattered between Sumatra, Malay Peninsula, and Borneo including the Riau Archipelago. Situated on one of the world's busiest shipping lan ...

Banjarmasin ) , translit_lang1 = Other , translit_lang1_type1 = Jawi , translit_lang1_info1 = بنجر ماسين , settlement_type = City , motto = ''Kayuh Baimbai'' ( Banjare ...

(

South Kalimantan South Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Selatan) is a province of Indonesia. It is the smallest province in Kalimantan, the Indonesian territory of Borneo. The provincial capital was Banjarmasin until 15 February 2022 when it was legally moved to B ...

Tarakan Tarakan is an island and the largest city of the Indonesian province of North Kalimantan. The island city is located in northern Borneo, midway along the coast of the province. The city boundaries are co-extensive with the island (including a c ...

(

North Kalimantan North Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It is located on the northernmost of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo. North Kalimantan borders the Malaysian states of Sabah to the north and Sarawak ...

), and

Ternate Ternate is a city in the Indonesian province of North Maluku and an island in the Maluku Islands. It was the ''de facto'' provincial capital of North Maluku before Sofifi on the nearby coast of Halmahera became the capital in 2010. It is off the ...

(

North Maluku North Maluku ( id, Maluku Utara) is a province of Indonesia. It covers the northern part of the Maluku Islands, bordering the Pacific Ocean to the north, the Halmahera Sea to the east, the Molucca Sea to the west, and the Seram Sea to the sout ...

Cities by population

*Bold: province's capital city *''Italics'': province's largest city

Gallery

References

{{Most populous cities in Indonesia, state=collapsed * Cities, Population

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Gui ...

Indonesian, Population

Cities by population

Gallery

See also

References