As of the 2020 Census, Medan had a population of 2,435,252 within itscity limits;[11][12] the official population estimate as of mid 2024 was 2,486,283 - comprising 1,237,602 males and 1,248,681 females - and projected to rise to 2,498,293 at mid 2025.[3] When the surroundingurban area is included, the population is over 3.4 million, making it thefourth largest urban area in Indonesia.[13] TheMedan metropolitan area—which includes neighbouringBinjai,Deli Serdang Regency, and a part ofKaro Regency—is the largest metropolitan area outside ofJava, with 4,744,323 residents counted in the 2020 Census,[14] rising to 4,944,979 in mid 2024.
The city was founded at the confluence of theDeli River and the Babura river by aKaronese man named Guru Patimpus. Then calledKampung Medan Putri, it became part of theDeli Sultanate, established in 1632. In the late 19th century,colonial Dutch seeking new plantation areas chose Medan and Deli as plantation hubs to found theDeli Company. Within a few years, the Dutchtobacco trade transformed Medan into an economic hub, earning it the nicknameHet Land Dollar ("the land of the money"). TheDeli Railway, established to ship tobacco,rubber,tea,timber,palm oil, andsugar from Medan to thePort of Belawan for worldwide export, brought further rapid development to Medan. The city became first the capital of theState of East Sumatra, and then the provincial capital of North Sumatra.
The termmedan might be derived from theBatak Karo wordmadan (ᯔᯑᯉ᯳), which literally means 'healed', 'blessed', or 'recovered'.[15] The term is associated with the historical Karo figure and founder of the city, traditional doctorGuru Patimpus [id]. The oldest evidence of this term used to refer to the city dates back toc. 13th-15th century during the reign ofAru, the Karo monarch.[16]
Another popular theory suggests thatmedan is ofMalay origin, literally meaning 'field'. The termmedan (مدان) in Malay might be derived from theMalayalam wordmaitānam (മൈതാനം, 'field'), which is cognate with theTamil wordmaitāṉ-am (மைதானம், 'ground'), or frommeidan (میدان),Persian term for "field" or "ground".[17]
Medan is located in what was once theKingdom of Aru, founded by the Karo people and flourishing between the 13th and 16th centuries.[18] A number of archaeological sites survive near Medan, including Kota Rentang, a port settlement in theHamparan Perak area;[19] Kota Cina, an ancient trading site inMedan Marelan;[20] and Benteng Putri Hijau, a fort ruin inDeli Tua.[21]
In the sixteenth century, Guru Patimpus Sembiring Pelawi, aKaronese man from theKaro Regency, converted fromPemena toIslam. While traveling to study under Datuk Kota Bangun, Guru Patimpus met and married the Princess ofPulo Brayan [id]. Accompanied by their two sons, Kolok and Kecik, the couple founded Medan village between theDeli and Babura Rivers.[citation needed]
Starting in the 1860s, Dutch authorities began to release new land for tobacco plantations. Said Abdullah Bilsagih, brother-in-law of the Deli Sultan Mahmud Perkasa Alam, persuaded Dutch tobacco merchantJacob Nienhuys to move his business from Java to Deli. Dutch merchants Van der Falk and Elliot, and Chinese brothersTjong Yong Hian andTjong A Fie, were also pioneers of Deli's tobacco industry. In 1867, Nienhuys, Jannsen, P.W. Clemen, and Cremer foundedDe Deli Maatschappij; in 1869, they moved its head office fromLabuhan Deli to Medan. This made Medan a centre of the tobacco trade, which continued to grow with the 1869 opening of theSuez Canal.
During the 1942Dutch East Indies campaign, the Japanese entered Medan on bicycles and occupied the city. The handover of power was chaotic, but through the use of theKempetai. Locals of Medan were subjected to enforced Japanese language and worship.[22] The Japanese were able to hold the city untiltheir surrender in 1945. Following that, Medan came under the authority of theSouth East Asia Command led by BritishAdmiralLord Louis Mountbatten. With theProclamation of Indonesian Independence on 17 August, Medan became part of the newly-independent Republic of Indonesia, news announced in Medan on 30 September.
In May 1998, months of student demonstrations in Medan over the1997 Asian financial crisis turned intoriots when a student was killed in a clash with security forces. The next day, the mobs became bigger, and many shops and vehicles in the business district (mostly owned by Chinese residents) were burned and looted. As a result, a curfew was imposed for more than two weeks until peace returned.[26]
On 5 September 2005,Mandala Airlines Flight 091 stalled a minute after taking off from Medan's oldPolonia International Airport for a flight to Jakarta. The aircraft crashed into a heavily populated residential area along Djamin Ginting road inPadang Bulan. Of the 117 passengers and crews on board, only 17 survived, and an additional 49 civilians on the ground were killed.[27] As a result,Kualanamu International Airport was built inDeli Serdang to replace the old airport, with construction finished in 2012. After the move to the new airport,height restriction laws in Medan were relaxed.
Medan is in the northeastern part ofSumatra island, in the province ofNorth Sumatra. The city is asemi-enclave within Deli Serdang Regency, bordered by that regency on three sides and by theStrait of Malacca to the north. The natural harbor formed where theDeli and Babura rivers feed into the straits has contributed to Medan's growth as a trading port.[28]
Medan's elevation varies between 2.5 and 37.5 m (8 ft 2 in and 123 ft 0 in) above sea level, with theBarisan Mountains to the south, and volcanoes such asSibayak Mountain andSinabung Mountain 50 to 70 km (31 to 43 mi) from the city.[citation needed]
Medan features atropical rainforest climate (Köppen:Af) with no realdry season.[29] Its driest month (January) on average sees about one-third the precipitation of its wettest month (October), with a total annual precipitation of about 2,200 mm (87 in). Autumn (September - November) is the rainiest season, and the temperature is still coolest in winter (December and January). Temperatures in the city average approximately 27 °C (81 °F) throughout the year.
Medan was governed byAbdillah from 2000 until 2008, when he and his vice mayor were caught by theCorruption Eradication Commission.Syamsul Arifin, the governor of North Sumatra Province, appointedAffifudin Lubis [id] as acting mayor, followed byRahudman Harahap after Lubis's 2009 resignation. Harahap resigned in order to run for office in the 2010 mayoral election, leaving Arifin himself to become acting mayor. In 2013, Harahap was also arrested for corruption, and his deputyDzulmi Eldin became acting mayor.[32]
Dzulmi Eldin was elected mayor in 2016,[33] and served until his arrest for corruption in 2019. He was replaced by his vice mayor,Akhyar Nasution, who served until the end of his term in 2021.
Medan is divided into 21districts (Indonesian:kecamatan), tabulated below with their areas and populations at the 2010 Census,[35] and the 2020 Census,[12] together with the official estimates as of mid-2024.[3] The table also includes the number of urban villages/neighbourhoods (Indonesian:kelurahan) in each district, and their postal codes.
The city centre consists of Medan Petisah, Medan Baru, Medan Polonia, Medan Maimun, Medan Kota, and Medan Barat (West Medan). Medan Labuhan is one of the largest districts by area (together with Medan Kota Belawan and Medan Marelan) and lies in the northern part of the city (Medan Kota Belawan is the northernmost city district, adjacent to theMalacca Strait, and separated by one of the outlets of theDeli River from the rest of the city). Medan Tuntungan serves as the gateway toKaro Regency, Medan Helvetia toBinjai City and Langkat, and Medan Amplas toTebing Tinggi andPematang Siantar.
Medan is Indonesia's largest city outsideJava, and its fourth largest altogether (afterJakarta,Surabaya andBandung). The population more than quadrupled in less than fifty years, growing from 568,000 in 1968[36] to 2.1 million in 2010 and to 2.5 million in 2025. As of 2020, thelarger metropolitan area had a population of 4,756,863, rising to 4,944,979 in mid 2024.
TheBataks in Medan are of three subethnicities. The nativeKaro mostly live in the southern parts of Medan, including Padang Bulan, Medan Johor and Tuntungan. TheToba, whom the Dutch employed on their oil palm plantations, live in Marindal and Amplas, or in nearby city centres such as the Medan Perjuangan district. Finally, theMandailing, who migrated to Medan after Indonesian independence in search of job opportunities, mainly live in Medan Tembung. The primary languages spoken by Bataks in Medan areBatak andKaro.
The largeJavanese community in Medan is primarily composed of the descendants of people transported from Java in the 19th century to be employed as contract workers at various plantations inNorth Sumatra. For the most part, they speak the local language ofJavanese.
TheMalays are also natives of Medan, having lived as fishermen in the outskirts of the city since theAru era. Starting in the 18th century, they began to spread throughout the city, with large numbers living in Medan Maimun, Kota Matsum, Labuhan and Belawan and speakingMalay.
Immigration from southern China to Deli began in the 16th century, and accelerated in the 19th and early 20th centuries as immigrants sought employment as planters and coolies. Medan is home to the largestChinese population in Sumatra, mostly concentrated around the city centre. Most Chinese people in Medan speakMedan Hokkien, a local dialect, but many also speakMandarin,Teochew, orCantonese.
Minangkabau came to Medan since the late of the 19th century. Minangs migration surged from the 1960s to the 1980s, becoming 10.9% of the population and foundingPadang restaurants throughout the city. Most Minangkabau people in Medan speakMinangkabau. They are mostly concentrated around the city centre, near Central Market (Pajak Sentral), Kota Matsum and Sukaramai.[39]
ManyAcehnese sought sanctuary in Medan after theinsurgency in Aceh in the late 1970s. They now own a number ofMie Aceh restaurants around the Setia Budi and Sunggal areas. Most speakAcehnese, andGayonese is also common.
Medan also has a substantialTamil Indonesian community.Kampung Madras, a busy area in the city centre, is well-known as a Tamil neighbourhood.
The different linguistic communities in Medan communicate in a slang calledBahasa Medan orDialek Medan (Medanese slang). This dialect of Indonesian includes loanwords from the various local languages, especially Malay.
Most of Medan's inhabitants areMuslim, accounting for approximately 65.78 percent of the population. The substantialChristian demographic (about 25 percent of the total population) includesCatholics,Methodists, andLutherans, such as theBatak Christian Protestant Church. Buddhists make up about 9 percent of the population, and there are smallerHindu,Confucian, andSikh communities. Some Bataknese follow traditional religions such asPemena andParmalim.
Gunung Timur Temple, onJalan Hang Tuah, is Medan's oldestTaoist temple.Maha Vihara Maitreya, on Jalan Cemara Asri, is the largestBuddhist temple in southeast Asia. The city's oldest church,Medan Cathedral, on Jalan Pemuda, was originally built asIndische Kerk by the Dutch and Indian community.Sri Mariamman Temple, on Jalan Zainul Arifin inKampung Madras, is the city's oldest Hindu temple, built around 1881; it is surrounded by over a hundred statues of various deities.Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni, a Catholic church in an Indo-Mogul style, was built on Jalan Sakura III in 2005, dedicated to aMarian apparition in 17th centuryTamil Nadu. At one point before and during the Japanese occupation of the city, Japanese migrants created aShinto shrine,Hirohara Shrine, to accommodate the increasing worshipers of Japanese residents.[41] It was later rebuilt during the Japanese occupation of the city in 1944 to accommodate the mandatory worship by locals.[22] The former shrine still stands as the lastShinto shrine inSoutheast Asia.[42][43]
The Medan metropolitan area was recognized as an Indonesian National Strategic Region (Indonesian:Kawasan Strategis Nasional) by Government Regulation No 28/2008. As a major commercial and economic hub of Indonesia, Medan is a centre for the production and trade of commodities includingcinnamon,tobacco,tea,coffee,rubber, andpalm oil. It also has a growing manufacturing sector, producing goods such as cars, machinery,tile, andpaper and pulp.
Medan is known as "the culinary heaven of Indonesia" for its variety of ethnic cuisines and prominent streethawkers. Prominent restaurants in Medan includeGaruda andUda Sayang (nasi padang andgulai),Sate Afrizal Amir (sate padang),Cahaya Baru (chapati andtandoori),OnDo Batak grill andTesalonika (babi panggang (grilled pork) andsaksang),Jalan Selat Panjang andJalan Semarang (Chinese food),Jalan Pagaruyung (Indian andMalay food), andJalan Padan Bulan (Batak food). Other major culinary destinations in Medan include Merdeka Walk, an outdoor area with a number of restaurants, and Pasar Rame, a daily outdoor market.[49]
The local cuisine in Medan comes from a variety of culinary traditions.Soto Medan is a savoury stew of mixed meats andcoconut milk, usually served with rice andperkedel.Bika ambon, a popular local cake, is traditionally flavoured withpandanus, but can also be found in banana, durian, cheese, and chocolate flavours.Babi Panggang Karo, grilled pork dipped inblood curd, may be served withsambalandaliman made from local peppers.
The Sultan of Deli (whose position is now purely ceremonial) still lives inMaimoon Palace, built 1887-1891. TheGreat Mosque of Medan, built in 1906, was designed in a Moroccan style by the Dutch architect A.J. Dingemans.[50]
The Bukit Barisan Museum is a military museum opened by Brigade GeneralLeo Lopulisa [id] on 21 June 1971. Located at 8 Jalan H. Zainul Arifin, the museum houses a number of historic weapons used in the1958 revolt in North Sumatra, and displays paintings of the rebellion against the Netherlands.[51]
ThePort of Belawan is on the northeast coast of Sumatra, 19 km (12 mi) north of Medan and accessible by a railway across the channel south of the island.[54] Originally built in 1890 for European tobacco exports, the harbour was expanded in 1907 with a new section for Chinese and indigenous traders.
The growth of northern Sumatra's rubber and palm oil plantations in the early twentieth century brought new developments to the port. Several major berthing facilities were built in the 1920s, and by 1938 the port handled the greatest cargo value of any in the Dutch East Indies. Trade volumes dropped substantially after Indonesian independence, but reached pre-independence levels again in the mid-1960s. A major restructuring in 1985 saw the construction of a container terminal; it almost immediately captured about one-fifth of Indonesia's containerized exports. Major products exported include rubber, palm oil, tea, and coffee.[55]
The current port has two terminals. The first, which handles passengers, offersferry services to cities including Penang,Langkawi,Batam, Jakarta, and Surabaya. The second, Belawan International Container Terminal (BICT), is used for export and import services, and is one of the largest shipping industry ports in Indonesia.
Major roads through Medan include theTrans-Sumatran Highway and theBelmera Toll Road. Other toll roads link the city to the airport, Binjai, and Tebing Tinggi.
Sri Lelawangsa commuter rail departing from Medan station
The largest train station in Medan isMedan Station. The city also has a number of smaller stations, including Medan Pasar, Pulu Brayan, Titi Papan, Labuhan, and Belawan. Of these, Titi Papan and Pulu Brayan serve exclusively freight trains, while the others also serve passenger trains.
Bothauto rickshaws andcycle rickshaws are widely available in Medan, for a cheap pre-negotiated fare. Ride-sharing servicesGojek andGrab are also in widespread use.
While taxis exist, most locals usesudako, Medan's share taxi system. Theseminibuses follow routes indicated by numbers displayed on the vehicle; route maps are not published, instead typically being spread by word-of-mouth.
Medan and its nearby urban areas have twobus rapid transit systems,Trans Mebidang andMedan Electric Bus, each with several active corridors.
Medan's television stations include public and private national networks, as well as local channels.TVRI Sumatera Utara, a public station serving North Sumatra, is headquartered in the city. Channels currently available in Medan include:
RRI Medan is the only public radio in Medan. Popular stations in Medan includePrambors FM,MNC Trijaya FM,I-Radio, KISS FM, VISI FM, and Delta FM.Several local languages are also served on the radio, such as Kardopa Radio (in theBatak language) and Symphony FM (in theMalay language).=
From the 1930s through the 1960s, Medan was the source of a major body of Indonesian literature, known as "Roman Medan". These books usually depicted local life in Medan and surrounding areas of Deli.
^Kumar, Pankaj; Mishra, Binaya Kumar; Avtar, Ram; Chakraborty, Shamik (2021). "Quantifying future water environment using numerical simulations: a scenario-based approach for sustainable groundwater management plan in Medan, Indonesia".Global Groundwater. Elsevier. pp. 585–596.doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-818172-0.00043-8.ISBN9780128181720.S2CID230551984.Medan is the capital city of North Sumatra province.
^Pelly, Usman; R., Ratna; Kardarmadja, M. Sunjata (1984).Sejarah sosial daerah Sumatra Utara, Kotamadya Medan [Sociohistory of North Sumatra, Medan Municipality] (in Indonesian). Indonesia:Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan.
^Meuraxa, Dada (1973).Sejarah kebudayaan suku-suku di Sumatera Utara [Cultural history of tribes in North Sumatra] (in Indonesian). Indonesia: Sasterawan.
^Reid, Anthony (2014),The Blood of the People: Revolution & the End of Traditional Rule in Northern Sumatra, Singapore: NUS Press,ISBN978-9971-69-637-5
^Usman Pelly, Sejarah Kota Madya Medan, 1950–1979; Departemen Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan R.I., Proyek Inventarisasi dan Dokumentasi Sejarah Nasional, Direktorat Sejarah dan Nilai Tradisional, 1985
^abLeo Suryadinata, Evi Nurvidya Arifin, Aris Ananta, Indonesia's Population: ethnicity and religion in a changing political landscape, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2003.
^Usman Pelly, Urbanisasi dan Adaptasi: Peranan Misi Budaya Minangkabau dan Mandailing, LP3ES, 1994
^Inamiya, Yasuhito; Nakajima, Michio (November 2019).非文字資料研究叢書２ 「神国」の残影｜国書刊行会 [Remnants of “Sacred Country” | Photographic Records of Sites of Overseas Shrines] (in Japanese). Kokusho Publishing Association.ISBN978-4-336-06342-7. Archived fromthe original on 1 August 2023. Retrieved1 August 2023.
Fleming, Tom (10 May 2021).Indonesia: Medan(PDF) (Report). Cultural Cities Profile East Asia. Jakarta:British Council Indonesia.Archived(PDF) from the original on 16 July 2024. Retrieved7 April 2025.
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