Jakarta

Jakarta, officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta, is the de facto capital and largest city of Indonesia and an autonomous region with administrative status equivalent to a province. Located on the northwest coast of Java, the world’s most populous island, the city borders the provinces of West Java and Banten and faces the Java Sea to the north. Although Jakarta covers about 661.23 square kilometres (255.30 square miles), the wider Jakarta metropolitan area—commonly known as Greater Jakarta—is one of the largest urban agglomerations in the world. The city serves as Indonesia’s political, economic, and cultural centre and hosts numerous national institutions, corporate headquarters, and the secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The area that is now Jakarta has been inhabited since at least the early centuries of the Common Era and was historically associated with the port of Sunda Kelapa, which served the Sunda Kingdom. In 1527, the settlement was renamed Jayakarta, following its capture by forces of the Demak Sultanate. The Dutch East India Company later seized the city in 1619 and rebuilt it as Batavia, the administrative centre of the Dutch East Indies for more than three centuries. After the Japanese occupation during the Second World War and Indonesia’s declaration of independence in 1945, the city adopted the name Jakarta and became the national capital of the newly independent republic.

As Indonesia’s principal financial and commercial hub, Jakarta plays a central role in the country’s economy and in regional trade across Southeast Asia. The city hosts the headquarters of major Indonesian corporations, financial institutions, and the Indonesia Stock Exchange, and has developed into a major centre for business, media, and international diplomacy. Rapid urbanisation since the mid-20th century has transformed Jakarta into a vast metropolitan region, attracting migrants from across the Indonesian archipelago and contributing to its position as the country’s most populous city and one of the largest urban economies in the region.

Jakarta is a highly diverse city with no single dominant ethnic group. Its population includes large communities of Javanese, Betawi, Sundanese, Chinese Indonesians, and migrants from many other regions of Indonesia. Indonesian is the official language and the primary means of communication, while Betawi culture reflects the historical blending of local, Chinese, Arab, and European influences that developed during the colonial period. As Indonesia’s capital and largest metropolis, Jakarta struggles with urban challenges including traffic congestion, air pollution, flooding, and land subsidence, issues that have contributed to the national government’s decision to relocate Indonesia’s future capital to Nusantara in East Kalimantan.