page_title: Nias
section_title: Geography and history
hierarchical_section_title: Nias / Geography and history
caption_attribution_description: Location of Nias, Indonesia
context_page_description: Nias is an island located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Nias is also the name of the archipelago of which the island is the centre, but also includes the Batu Islands to the south-east and the small Hinako Islands to the west. Nias Island covers an area of 5,121.3 km². It is mostly a lowland area rising to around 800 m above sea level. There were 756,338 inhabitants on the island at the 2010 Census; at the 2015 Census this had risen to 798,506.
context_section_description: It is located in a chain of islands parallel to the west coast of Sumatra; Simeulue is about 140 km (87 mi) northwest, and the Batu Islands (which are administered as part of Nias and have an ethnically similar population) are located about 80 km (50 mi) southeast. This chain, which resurfaces in Nusa Tenggara in the mountainous islands of Sumba and Timor, is the forearc of the South Sumatra Basin along the Sunda Trench subduction zone.
  At Nias the oceanic plate is being obliquely subducted under the Sunda Plate at the rapid rate of 52 mm (2.0 in) a year (Milsom).
caption: Location of Nias, Indonesia.
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