Welcome to West Java!
Western Java is the western third of the island of Java, Indonesia. It covers from west to east the province of Banten, the Jakarta Special Capital Region (DKI Jakarta), and the province of West Java (Jawa Barat). Western Java is one of the most densely populated regions on earth, but still there are extensive natural areas of impassable rainforest, as well as many active volcanoes and secluded beaches.
West Java (Indonesian: Jawa Barat) is a province of Indonesia on the western part of the island of Java, with its provincial capital in Bandung. West Java is bordered by the province of Banten and the country's capital region of Jakarta to the west, the Java Sea to the north, the province of Central Java to the east and the Indian Ocean to the south. The province is the native homeland of the Sundanese people, the second-largest ethnic group in Indonesia after the Javanese.
West Java was one of the first eight provinces of Indonesia formed following the country's independence proclamation and was later legally re-established on 14 July 1950. In 1966, the city of Jakarta was split off from West Java as a 'special capital region' (Daerah Khusus Ibukota), with a status equivalent to that of a province, while in 2000 the western parts of the province were in turn split away to form a separate Banten province.
Even following these split-offs, West Java is the most populous province of Indonesia with a population of 48,274,160 as of the 2020 Census. The province's largest cities, Bandung and Bekasi, are the third and fourth most populous cities proper in Indonesia, respectively. As a satellite city within the Jakarta metropolitan area, Bekasi has experienced highly rapid population growth, with slightly fewer inhabitants than Bandung. Bandung remains one of the most densely populated cities proper in the world, while Bekasi and Depok, both satellites of Jakarta, are respectively the seventh and tenth most populous suburbs in the world.