Regencies (kabupaten) and cities (kota) are the second-level administrative subdivision in Indonesia, immediately below the provinces, and above the districts. Regencies are roughly equivalent to American counties, although most cities in the United States are below the counties.[1] Following the implementation of decentralization beginning on 1 January 2001, regencies and city municipalities became the key administrative units responsible for providing most governmental services.[2] Each of regencies and cities has their own local government and legislative body.
The difference between a regency and a city lies in demography, size, and economy. Generally, a regency comprises a rural area larger than a city, but also often includes various towns. A city usually has non-agricultural economic activities. A regency is headed by a regent (bupati), while a city is headed by a mayor (wali kota). All regents, mayors, and members of legislatures are directly elected via elections to serve for a five-year term which can be renewed once. Each regency or city is divided further into districts more commonly known as kecamatan (except in the Special Region of Yogyakarta, where kapanewon and kemantren are used, and Western New Guinea (Papua), where distrik is used).
An administrative city (kota administrasi) or an administrative regency (kabupaten administrasi) is a subdivision of province without its own local legislatures (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Daerah). The leader of administrative city or administrative regency is directly appointed by the governor. This type of city and regency in Indonesia is only found in Jakarta which consisted of five administrative cities and one administrative regency.
As of January 2023[update], there were 514-second-level administrative divisions (416 regencies and 98 cities) in Indonesia.[3] The list below groups regencies and cities in Indonesia by provinces. Each regency has an administrative centre, the regency seat.[4]
Following the Regional Autonomy Act (Indonesian: Undang-Undang Otonomi Daerah) of 1999, many regencies have been split to create additional regencies and cities, the number of such divisions were thus increased to 514. However, these territorial splits can sometimes lead into corruption cases.[10] As of early 2024, further proposals for territorial splits are still under a moratorium.[11]
In two special cases, all subdivisions of North Maluku and Riau Islands were made from parts of the defunct North Maluku Regency and Riau Islands Regency, respectively. All subdivisions of North Kalimantan are also made from lands of Bulungan Regency, but its area was split to several regencies before the province was established. Central Java (since 1965) and the Special Region of Yogyakarta (apart from the separation of the Thousand Islands Administrative Regency from North Jakarta City) are the only province-level areas which have not had any subdivision splits. Listed below are the subdivision splits from 1999 to the most recent ones in 2014; for pre-1999 splits see also main article in Indonesian Wikipedia.
Regencies of East Timor Province c. 1990sEmblem of Kutai Regency, until the regency was renamed to Kutai Kartanegara Regency in 2002.
These regencies are defunct by splitting its lands together, or renamed.[citation needed] This list does not include colonial-era regencies, or former regencies of the former province of East Timor.
