| This article is part of a series on |
| Subdivisions of Indonesia |
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| Level 1 |
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| Level 2 |
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| Level 3 |
| (kecamatan,distrik,kapanewon, orkemantren) |
| Level 4 |
| (desa orkelurahan) |
| Others |
InIndonesia,district or ambiguouslysubdistrict, is the third-leveladministrative subdivision, belowregency orcity.[1][2][3][4] The local termkecamatan is used in the majority of Indonesian areas. The termdistrik is used inprovinces in Papua. In theSpecial Region of Yogyakarta, the termkapanewon is used for districts within the regencies, while the termkemantren is used for districts withinYogyakarta, the province's only city.[5] According toStatistics Indonesia, there are a total of 7,288 districts in Indonesia as of 2023, subdivided into 83,971 administrative villages (ruraldesa and urbankelurahan).[6]
During theDutch East Indies and early republic period, the termdistrict referred tokewedanan, a subdivision of regency, whilekecamatan was translated assubdistrict (Dutch:onderdistrict).[7] Following the abolition ofkewedanan, the termdistrict began to be associated withkecamatan which has since been directly administered by regency. Mainstream media such asThe Jakarta Post,[8][9][10]Kompas,[11][12][13] andTempo[14][15][16][17] use "district" to refer tokecamatan; however machine translation services likeGoogle Translate often incorrectly uses "district" to refer to regencies instead.
District in Indonesia is the third-leveladministrative subdivision, belowregency or city (second-level) andprovince (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 ofurban/rural villages.[18] District head is a career bureaucrat position directly appointed by regent or mayor. The local district termkecamatan is used in the majority of Indonesian areas, withcamat being the head.
During theDutch East Indies and early republic period, the termdistrict referred tokewedanan, a subdivision of a regency.Kewedanan itself was divided intokecamatan, which was translated assubdistrict (Dutch:onderdistrict).[7] Following the abolition ofkewedanan, the termdistrict began to be associated withkecamatan which has since been directly administered by regency. InEnglish-language dictionary,subdistrict means "a division or subdivision of adistrict", hence the translation ofkecamatan assubdistrict is no longer precise since the absence ofkewedanan asdistrict.[19][20] The 1982 publication ofStatistics Indonesia translatedkecamatan asdistrict.[21]
With the release of the Act Number 21 of 2001 on the Special Autonomous of Papua Province, the termdistrik was used instead ofkecamatan in the entireWestern New Guinea.[22] The difference between the two is merely the naming, withkepala distrik being the district head. It was later followed in 2019 by another autonomous province, theSpecial Region of Yogyakarta, wherekecamatan was replaced withkapanewon andkemantren.Sultan Hamengkubuwono X, the region's governor and the monarch ofYogyakarta 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 apanewu, whilekemantren (a subdivision of city), is headed by amantri pamong praja.[5]
Media related toDistricts of Indonesia at Wikimedia Commons