The term ''district'', in the context of
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 ...
, refers to the third-level
administrative subdivision, below
regency or
city
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 ...
. The local term ' is used in the majority of Indonesian areas, except in
Papua,
West Papua, and the
Special Region of Yogyakarta. The term ' is used in Papua and West Papua. In the Special Region of Yogyakarta, the term ''kapanewon'' is used for districts within the regencies, while the term ' is used for districts within
Yogyakarta, the province's only city.
According to
Statistics Indonesia, there are a total of 7,252 districts in Indonesia as at 2019, subdivided into 83,820 administrative villages (rural ' and urban ').
During the
Dutch East Indies and early republic period, the term ''district'' referred to ''kewedanan'', a subdivision of regency, while ' was translated as ''subdistrict'' ( nl, onderdistrict).
Following the abolition of ''kewedanan'', the term ''district'' began to be associated with ' which has since been directly administered by regency. Mainstream media such as ''
The Jakarta Post'', ', and ''
Tempo'' use "district" to refer to '; however machine translation services like
Google Translate often incorrectly use "district" to refer to regencies instead.
Definition
District in Indonesia is the third-level
administrative subdivision, below
regency or city (second-level) and
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 ...
(first-level). According to the Act Number 23 of 2014, district is formed by the government of regency or city in order to improve the coordination of governance, public services, and empowerment of
urban/rural villages. District head is a career bureaucrat position directly appointed by regent or mayor. The local district term ' is used in the majority of Indonesian areas, with ' being the head.
During the
Dutch East Indies and early republic period, the term ''district'' referred to ''kewedanan'', a subdivision of a regency. ''Kewedanan'' itself was divided into ', which was translated as ''subdistrict'' ( nl, onderdistrict).
Following the abolition of ''kewedanan'', the term ''district'' began to be associated with ' which has since been directly administered by regency. In
English-language dictionary, ''
subdistrict'' means "a division or subdivision of a
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or counties, several municipalities, subdivision ...
", hence the translation of ' as ''subdistrict'' is no longer precise since the absence of ''kewedanan'' as ''district''. The 1982 publication of
Statistics Indonesia translated ' as ''district''.
With the release of the Act Number 21 of 2001 on the Special Autonomous of Papua Province, the term ' was used instead of ' in the entire
Western New Guinea (
Papua and
West Papua).
The difference between the two is merely the naming, with ''kepala distrik'' being the district head. It was later followed in 2019 by another autonomous province, the
Special Region of Yogyakarta, where ' was replaced with ''kapanewon'' and '.
Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, the region's governor and the monarch of
Yogyakarta Sultanate, issued Gubernatorial Decree Number 25 of 2019, which restored the old naming convention for the region's subdivisions. ''Kapanewon ''(a subdivision of regency) is headed by a ''panewu'', while ' (a subdivision of city), is headed by a ''mantri pamong praja''.
List of districts
References
External links
*
{{Districts of Indonesia
Districts, Indonesia
Districts
Districts