Bintan Regency

Bintan Regency (Indonesian: Kabupaten Bintan; pronounced [kabuˌpat̪ɛn ˈbin̪t̪an]), or originally the Riau Islands Regency (Indonesian: Kabupaten Kepulauan Riau; pronounced [kabuˌpat̪ɛn kəpuˌlawan ˈriau̯]) is an administrative area in the Riau Islands Province of Indonesia. Bintan Regency includes all of Bintan Island (except for the city of Tanjung Pinang which is separately administered as an autonomous area of the island) and also includes many outlying islands including the Tambelan and Badas Islands situated between Bintan and West Kalimantan; altogether there are 273 islands comprising the regency.

The Bintan Regency originally included all of the areas now comprising the Riau Islands Province, but on 4 October 1999 parts of the regency were split off to create separate Regencies of Karimun and Natuna (the latter originally including what in 2008 became the Anambas Islands Regency), together with the independent city of Batam. In 2001, the town of Tanjung Pinang on Bintan Island was also split off to become an independent city. In 2002, all these areas which had comprised the original Bintan Regency were brought together in a new Riau Islands Province when that was created from the archipelagic part of Riau Province. In 2003, a further regency – for the Lingga Islands – was created from part of the residual Bintan Regency.

Bintan Regency covers an area of roughly 2,045 square kilometres (790 mi²). It had a population of 142,300 at the 2010 census and 159,518 at the 2020 census; the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 175,873.