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 Guine ...

, refers to the third-level administrative subdivision, below

regency A regent (from Latin : ruling, governing) is a person appointed to govern a state '' pro tempore'' (Latin: 'for the time being') because the monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge the powers and duties of the monarchy ...

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 de ...

. The local term ' is used in the majority of Indonesian areas, except in Papua, West Papua, and the

Special Region of Yogyakarta The Special Region of Yogyakarta (; id, Daerah Istimewa (D.I.) Yogyakarta) is a provincial-level autonomous region of Indonesia in southern Java. It has also been known as the Special Territory of Yogyakarta. It is bordered by the Indian Oce ...

. 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 Yogyakarta (; jv, ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦠ ; pey, Jogjakarta) is the capital city of Special Region of Yogyakarta in Indonesia, in the south-central part of the island of Java. As the only Indonesian royal city still ruled by a monarchy, ...

, the province's only city. According to

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 ...

, 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 ''The Jakarta Post'' is a daily English-language newspaper in Indonesia. The paper is owned by PT Niskala Media Tenggara and based in the nation's capital, Jakarta. ''The Jakarta Post'' started as a collaboration between four Indonesian med ...

'', ', and ''

Tempo In musical terminology, tempo ( Italian, 'time'; plural ''tempos'', or ''tempi'' from the Italian plural) is the speed or pace of a given piece. In classical music, tempo is typically indicated with an instruction at the start of a piece (ofte ...

'' use "district" to refer to '; however machine translation services like

Google Translate Google Translate is a multilingual neural machine translation service developed by Google to translate text, documents and websites from one language into another. It offers a website interface, a mobile app for Android and iOS, and an A ...

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 outsi ...

(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 English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to t ...

dictionary, ''

subdistrict A subdistrict or sub-district is an administrative division that is generally smaller than a district. Equivalents * Administrative posts of East Timor, formerly Portuguese-language * Kelurahan, in Indonesia * Mukim, a township in Brunei, In ...

'' 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 county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...

", hence the translation of ' as ''subdistrict'' is no longer precise since the absence of ''kewedanan'' as ''district''. The 1982 publication of

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 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 ...

( 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

, where ' was replaced with ''kapanewon'' and '. Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, the region's governor and the monarch of

Yogyakarta Sultanate The Sultanate of Yogyakarta ( jv, ꦏꦱꦸꦭ꧀ꦠꦤ꧀ꦤꦤ꧀ꦔꦪꦺꦴꦒꦾꦏꦂꦡꦲꦢꦶꦤꦶꦔꦿꦠ꧀, Kasultanan Ngayogyakarta Hadiningrat ; ) is a Javanese monarchy in Yogyakarta Special Region, in the Republic ...

, 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 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 county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...