Christianity in Indonesia

Christianity is Indonesia's second-largest religion, after Islam. Indonesia also has the second largest Christian population in Southeast Asia after the Philippines, and the 4th largest Christian in Asia after the Philippines, India and China. Indonesia's 25 million Christians constitute about 10% of the country's population, with 7% Protestant and 3% Catholic.

Distribution

Christianity, a minority religion in Indonesia, is not evenly spread throughout the archipelago. Indonesian provinces with a majority of the population self-identifying as Christian are Papua, West Papua, East Nusa Tenggara, and North Sulawesi.

Sumatra

Sumatra's northern-most province, Aceh, operates Sharia law and all regencies are 99%+ Muslim, with the exception of Aceh Singkil (11.2% Christian) and Southeast Aceh (18.7% Christian). Both areas' Christian populations consist of ethnic groups whose homelands lie outside Aceh - in Aceh Singkil, Christians are mostly Pakpak people, whose homeland is to the east of Aceh Singkil, in Pakpak Bharat regency, of North Sumatra, as well as a small population of Nias people, on the Banyak Islands; in Southeast Aceh, the Christian population consists of Karo people, whose homeland lies to the south, in the Karo Regency of North Sumatra.

Indonesia

Coordinates: 5°S 120°E / 5°S 120°E / -5; 120

Indonesia (ⁱ/ˌɪndəˈniːʒə/ IN-də-NEE-zhə or /ˌɪndoʊˈniːziə/ IN-doh-NEE-zee-ə; Indonesian: [ɪndonesia]), officially the Republic of Indonesia (Indonesian: Republik Indonesia [rɛpublik ɪndonesia]), is a sovereign island country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. It is the largest island country in the world by the number of islands, with more than fourteen thousand islands. Indonesia has an estimated population of over 255 million people and is the world's fourth most populous country and the most populous Muslim-majority country. The world's most populous island of Java contains more than half of the country's population.

Indonesia's republican form of government includes an elected legislature and president. Indonesia has 34 provinces, of which five have Special Administrative status. Its capital city is Jakarta. The country shares land borders with Papua New Guinea, East Timor, and the Malaysian Borneo. Other neighbouring countries include Singapore, the Philippines, Australia, Palau, and the Indian territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Indonesia is a founding member of ASEAN and a member of the G-20 major economies. The Indonesian economy is the world's 16th largest by nominal GDP and the 8th largest by GDP at PPP.

Provinces of Indonesia

Indonesian territory is composed of 34 provinces. A province (Indonesian: provinsi) is the highest tier of the local government divisions of Indonesia (Daerah Tingkat I - level I region). Provinces are further divided into regencies and cities (Daerah Tingkat II - level II regions), which are in turn subdivided into districts (kecamatan).

Background

Each province has its own local government, headed by a governor, and has its own legislative body. The governor and members of local representative bodies are elected by popular vote for five-year terms.

Current provinces

Indonesia has 34 provinces, eight of which have been created since 1999, namely: North Maluku, West Papua, Banten, Bangka–Belitung Islands, Gorontalo, Riau Islands Province, West Sulawesi and (in late 2012) North Kalimantan.

Five provinces have special status:

Papua (province)

Papua Province (Indonesian: Provinsi Papua) is the largest and easternmost province of Indonesia. It lies in West Papua region, which comprises the Indonesian, western, half of the island of New Guinea and nearby islands. Papua is bordered by the nation of Papua New Guinea to the east, and by West Papua province to the west. Its capital is Jayapura. It was formerly called Irian Jaya (before that West Irian or Irian Barat) and comprised all of Indonesian New Guinea. In 2002 the current name was adopted and in 2003 West Papua province was created within West Papua region from western parts of Papua province.

Naming

"Papua" is the official Indonesian and internationally recognised name for the province.

During the Dutch colonial era the region was known as part of "Dutch New Guinea" or "Netherlands New Guinea". Since its annexation in 1969, it became known as "West Irian" or "Irian Barat" until 1973, and thereafter renamed "Irian Jaya" (roughly translated, "Glorious Irian") by the Suharto administration. This was the official name until the name "Papua" was adopted in 2002. Today, the indigenous inhabitants of this province prefer to call themselves Papuans.