Greater Jakarta

Greater Jakarta (Indonesian: Jakarta Raya) is a generic term for the urban agglomeration surrounding Jakarta, Indonesia, the capital and largest city in the country. Being a generic term, there are multiple definitions for differing purposes, yet all rank Greater Jakarta among the largest urban agglomerations on the planet. These definitions do not necessarily need to be defined by the government, they can be defined by an organization or study, such as Demographia, a development bank, a university, etc.

Demography

Greater Jakarta is an immigration magnet and home to people from all over Indonesia and Southeast Asia, as well as a sizeable expatriate population. Greater Jakarta has significant numbers of Sundanese, Javanese, Betawi as well as Bataks from the rest of the island.

Definitions

The administrative definition, Jabodetabek, formerly Jabotabek, has for decades been the basis for all metropolitan area definitions, however urbanization does not conform to administrative lines, there are considerable built-up areas with commuting patterns into Jakarta or its adjacent independent cities (kota), and complex geography such as huge volcanoes, rice paddies, and swampland that make it a messy definition to properly define the agglomerated built-up area. There have been numerous studies and attempts to redefine Greater Jakarta, some advocated by former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during his term, however resistance against changing norms has generally blocked progress and have had limited success. As Jabodetabek is an acronym, the re-definitions also have tended to tack on abbreviations to the end in the acronym form.

Issues leading to the administrative definition revision attempts include:

• Mountainous regions and active volcanoes (reaching over 3000 meters) within the definition, including volcanic highlands fringing the south, e.g. Mount Gede and Mount Salak, and the built-up ring of population around Gede both inside and outside of Jabodetabek, this specific issue what brought up by Yudhoyono to consider Cianjur and Sukabumi cities for addition, currently not part of Jabodetabek. For a short time, Cianjur was included and tacked on as jur to the acronym such as BKSP Jabodetabekjur.
• Lightly populated parts within Jabodetabek mostly characterized by rice paddies including swamps of Northern Bekasi Regency, being slowly consumed by dense concentric satellite communities growing from transport routes, especially at fringes of the constituent regencies.
• Karawang Regency and Purwakarta Regency to the east, and Serang Regency and Serang city to the west, all outside of Jabodetabek, where both contiguous (with DKI Jakarta) and non-contiguous (spotty) urban build-up has occurred surrounding intercity rail lines and large highways (especially Pantura) into Jakarta and the continuous evolution.
• Routing of the KRL Jabodetabek, Jakarta's biggest single mass transit mode, that reaches the city of Rangkasbitung, which lies outside the definition of Jabodetabek. All other termini lie within Jabodetabek.
• Fast growth of Bandung Metropolitan Area and a corridor of mushrooming population between the close metropolitan areas. Though not yet integrated, the chain of non-contiguous nevertheless dense settlements continue to vex the issue of how to define metropolises, much like the currently integrating cities of the Pearl River Delta, with the World Bank and Demographia leading that claim as the world's largest single metropolis while the Chinese government itself claims the region has yet some ways to go before being defined as a single metro area.

Various names and definitions

As Greater Jakarta continued its rapid growth and sprawl over the decades, definitions are modified and municipalities (kota) coalesced out of regencies. Names grow longer as syllables of cities are tacked on the ends. Initially, the metropolitan area was defined as:

• Jabotabek, the combination of Jakarta + Bogor + Tangerang + Bekasi cities (Kota) and Regencies (Kabupaten), this name was rendered obsolete when Depok was added.
• Jabodetabek, Depok was carved out of Bogor Regency in 1999, leading to the new name (but covering the same area as Jabotabek) Similarly, South Tangerang was carved out of Tangerang Regency, without a name change or area change. Former official government designation. (for a short time, Jabodetabekjur became official).

Table

Metropolitan Area name	Details	Population 2010 Census	Area (km2)	Population Density (People/km2)	Agency	Pop Date	Map
Area of DKI Jakarta	"City" of Jakarta, urban core. Latest population here	9,607,787	664	14,469	BPS, Tabel Hasil Sensus Penduduk 2010	2010 Census
Jabodetabek	Official and Administrative definition for Metropolitan area of Jakarta, Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, and Bekasi cities and regencies. Definition has not been updated in decades despite numerous attempts.	27,957,104	6,392	4,373.8	BPS, Tabel Hasil Sensus Penduduk 2010	2010 Census

See also

• List of metropolitan areas in Indonesia

External links

• Interactive district-wise (Kecamatan) population density map of Java, including Greater Jakarta