Welcome to Jakarta!
Jakarta is Indonesia's capital and largest city, with about 10 million inhabitants, and a total of 30 million in Greater Jakarta on the Java island. Dubbed The Big Durian, an equivalent to New York's Big Apple, its concrete jungle, traffic frenzy, and hot polluted air may tempt you to skip the city as fast as possible, but what awaits inside will change your perspective! One of the most bustling and cosmopolitan cities in Asia, the J-Town has cheerful nightlife, vibrant shopping malls, a variety of foods, refreshing greenery, cultural diversity, and rich history, that caters to all levels of budget and how much fun you want to have.
Jakarta (officially the Special Capital Region of Jakarta (Indonesian: Daerah Khusus Ibukota Jakarta), is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Lying on the northwest coast of Java (the world's most populous island), it is the largest city in Southeast Asia, and also serves as the diplomatic capital of ASEAN. Jakarta is the center of the economy, culture, and politics of Indonesia. It has a province-level status and had a population of 10,562,088 as of 2020. Although Jakarta extends over only 664.01 square kilometers (256.38 sq mi) and thus has the smallest area of any Indonesian province, its metropolitan area covers 9,957.08 square kilometers (3,844.45 sq mi), which includes the satellite cities Bogor, Depok, Tangerang, South Tangerang, and Bekasi, and has an estimated population of 35 million as of 2021, making it the largest urban area in Indonesia and Southeast Asia and the second-largest in the world (after Tokyo), with a current population of 33,718,269 as of 2020. Jakarta ranks first among the Indonesian states in the human development index. Jakarta's business opportunities, and its ability to offer a potentially higher standard of living than is available in other parts of the country, have attracted migrants from across the Indonesian archipelago, making it a melting pot of numerous cultures.
Jakarta is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in Southeast Asia. Established in the fourth century as Sunda Kelapa, the city became an important trading port for the Sunda Kingdom. At one time, it was the de facto capital of the Dutch East Indies, when it was known as Batavia. Jakarta was officially a city within West Java until 1960 when its official status was changed to a province with special capital region distinction. As a province, its government consists of five administrative cities and one administrative regency. Jakarta is an alpha world city and is the seat of the ASEAN secretariat, Financial institutions such as the Bank of Indonesia, and the Indonesia Stock Exchange, and corporate headquarters of numerous Indonesian companies and multinational corporations are located in the city. In 2017, the city's GRP PPP was estimated at US$483.4 billion.
Jakarta's primary challenges include rapid urban growth, ecological breakdown, gridlocked traffic, congestion, and flooding. Jakarta is sinking up to 17 cm (6.7 inches) per year, which, coupled with the rising sea levels, has made the city more prone to flooding. It is one of the fastest-sinking capitals in the world. Because of these challenges, in August 2019, President Joko Widodo announced that the capital of Indonesia would be moved from Jakarta to the province of East Kalimantan on the island of Borneo.