Batam

About Batam

Batam, officially the City of Batam or Batam City (Indonesian: Kota Batam, not to be confused with Batam Kota, a district within this city), is the largest city in the Indonesian province of the Riau Islands.

The city of Batam includes Batam Island at 410 square kilometres (160 mi2), as well as other major islands such as Rempang at 165 square kilometres (64 mi2) and Galang at 80 square kilometres (31 mi2). Together, the three-interconnected islands of the Riau Archipelago are known as Barelang (an abbreviation of Batam–Rempang–Galang). The remaining hundreds of tiny islands are largely conservation areas, small fishing outposts, or uninhabited mangroves. Collectively, the land area of all these islands make up around 1,020.28 square kilometres (393.93 mi2). Batam Island is the core urban and industrial zone, while both Rempang Island and Galang Island maintain their rural character and low-density population; they are connected to Batam Island by short bridges. Bulang Island and the islands to its north lie to the west of Batam Island; while they are part of the Belakang Padang District, they are also administratively within the city.

Batam City is an industrial boomtown, an emerging transport hub and part of a free trade zone in the Indonesia–Malaysia–Singapore Growth Triangle, located 20 km (12 mi) off Singapore's south coast. According to Statistics Indonesia's 2020 census, Batam had a municipal population of 1,196,396, making it the third largest city in the region of Sumatra, after Medan and Palembang. Islands that form part of Batam are also the closest parts of Indonesia to Singapore, at a minimum distance of 6 km (3.7 miles) across the Singapore Strait. In clear weather and good visibility, both Batam and Singapore are visible from each other with the naked eye. Batam was the fastest-growing municipality in Indonesia during the decade prior to 2010, with a population growth rate of 11% per year; however, there were setbacks during the subsequent decade. In 2017, the island suffered severe job losses; some 300,000 workers were laid off. The official estimated population as of mid 2025 was 1,296,960.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA. Photography via Wikimedia Commons.