Papua (province)

Papua is a province of Indonesia, comprising the northern coast of Western New Guinea together with island groups in Cenderawasih Bay to the west. It roughly follows the borders of Papuan customary region of Tabi Saireri, and is divided into eight regencies (kabupaten) and one city (kota), the latter being the provincial capital of Jayapura.
It is bordered by nation of Papua New Guinea to the east, the Pacific Ocean to the north, Cenderawasih Bay to the west, and the provinces of Central Papua and Highland Papua to the south. The province also shares maritime boundaries with Palau in the Pacific. Papua, along with the five other Papuan provinces, has a higher degree of autonomy level compared to other Indonesian provinces.
Prior to 2003, the province (known as Irian Barat from 1962 to 1973 and Irian Jaya from 1973 to 2002) covered the entirety of Western New Guinea, a region also known as "Papua". In 2002, Papua adopted its current name and was granted a special autonomous status under Indonesian legislation. In 2001, the western end of the province was split off into a new province of West Papua, and in July 2022 the provinces of Central Papua, Highland Papua, and South Papua were also split off, leaving the current province covering a much smaller northern area around Jayapura, the northern part of the former province, and the islands in the Cenderawasih Bay.
The official estimate of the population in mid 2024 of the province under its current borders was 1,060,550 (comprising 554,800 males and 505,800 females).
The province of Papua is governed by a directly elected governor and a regional legislature, People's Representative Council of Papua (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Papua, abbreviated as DPRP or DPR Papua). A unique government organization in the province is the Papuan People's Assembly (Majelis Rakyat Papua), which was formed by the Indonesian government in 2005, as mandated by the Papua Special Autonomy Law, as a coalition of Papuan tribal chiefs, Papuan religious leaders, and Papuan women representatives, tasked with arbitration and speaking on behalf of Papuan tribal customs.
Since 2014, the DPRP has 55 members who are elected through General elections every five years and 14 people who are appointed through the special autonomy, bringing the total number of DPRP members to 69 people. The DPRP leadership consists of 1 Chairperson and 3 Deputy Chairmen who come from political parties that have the most seats and votes. The current DPRP members are the results of the 2019 General Election which was sworn in on 31 October 2019 by the Chairperson of the Jayapura High Court at the Papua DPR Building. The composition of DPRP members for the 2019–2024 period consists of 13 political parties where the Nasdem Party is the political party with the most seats, with 8 seats, followed by the Democratic Party which also won 8 seats and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle which won 7 seats.
The province of Papua is one of seven provinces to have obtained special autonomy status, the others being Aceh, West Papua, Southwest Papua, Central Papua, Highland Papua and South Papua (the Special Regions of Jakarta and Yogyakarta have a similar province-level special status). According to Law 21/2001 on Special Autonomy Status (UU Nomor 21 Tahun 2001 tentang Otonomi khusus Papua), the provincial government of Papua is provided with authority within all sectors of administration, except for the five strategic areas of foreign affairs, security and defense, monetary and fiscal affairs, religion and justice. The provincial government is authorized to issue local regulations to further stipulate the implementation of the special autonomy, including regulating the authority of districts and municipalities within the province. Due to its special autonomy status, Papua province is provided with significant amount of special autonomy funds, which can be used to benefit its indigenous peoples. But the province has low fiscal capacity and it is highly dependent on unconditional transfers and the above-mentioned special autonomy fund, which accounted for about 55% of total revenues in 2008.
After obtaining its special autonomy status, to allow the local population access to timber production benefits, the Papuan provincial government issued a number of decrees, enabling:
As of 2022 (following the separation of Central Papua, Highland Papua, and South Papua province), the residual Papua Province consisted of 8 regencies (kabupaten) and one city (kota); on the map below, these regencies comprise the northern belt from Waropen Regency to Keerom Regency, plus the island groups to their northwest. Initially the area now forming the present Papua Province contained three regencies - Jayapura, Yapen Waropen and Biak Numfor. The City of Jayapura was separated on 2 August 1993 from Jayapura Regency and formed into a province-level administration. On 11 December 2002 three new regencies were created - Keerom and Sarmi from parts of Jayapura Regency, and Waropen from part of Yapen Waropen Regency (the rest of this regency was renamed as Yapen Islands). On 18 December 2003 a further regency - Supiori - was created from part of Biak Numfor Regency, and on 15 March 2007 a further regency - Mamberamo Raya - was created from the western part of Sarmi Regency. These regencies and the city are together subdivided as into districts (distrik), and thence into "villages" (kelurahan and desa). With the release of the Act Number 21 of 2001 concerning the Special Autonomous Region of Papua Province, the term distrik was used instead of kecamatan in the entire Western New Guinea. The difference between the two is merely the terminology, with kepala distrik being the district head.
The regencies (kabupaten) and the city (kota) are listed below with their areas and their populations at the 2020 census and subsequent official estimates for mid 2024, together with the 2020 Human Development Index of each administrative divisions.
The province now forms one of Indonesia's 84 national electoral districts to elect members to the People's Representative Council. The Papua Electoral District consists of all of the 8 regencies in the province, together with the city of Jayapura, and elects 3 members to the People's Representative Council.
The province of Papua is located between 2 ° 25' – 9 ° S and 130 ° – 141 ° East. The total area of Papua is now 82,680.95 km (31,923.29 sq mi). Until its division in 2022 into four provinces, Papua province was the province that had the largest area in Indonesia, with a total area of 312,816.35 km, or 19.33% of the total area of the Indonesian archipelago. The boundaries of Papua are: Pacific Ocean (north), Highland Papua (south), Central Papua (Southwest) and Papua New Guinea (east).
While the Papuan branch of the Central Agency on Statistics had earlier projected the 2020 population of the province (as constituted at that time) to be 3,435,430 people the actual census in 2020 revealed a total population of 4,303,707, of which the majority were Christian. The official estimate for mid 2022 was 4,418,581 prior to the division of the province into four separate provinces. , spread throughout 28 regencies and one administrative city. Following the division of the province into 4 separate provinces, the city of Jayapura is the most populated administrative division in the province, with a total of 420,580 people in mid 2024, while Supiori Regency, which comprises mainly the island of Supiori, one of the Schouten Islands within Cenderawasih Bay off the north coast of Papua, is the least populated administrative division in the province, with just 24,530 people. Most of the population in the province are concentrated in coastal regions, especially around the city of Jayapura and its suburbs.
According to Indonesian Citizenship and Civil Registry in 2022, 70.15% of the Papuans identified themselves as Christians, with 64.68% being Protestants and 5.47% being Catholics. 29.56% of the population are Muslims and less than 1% were Buddhists or Hindus.