An explainer on the kecamatan of Aceh, Indonesia, based on Wikipedia’s “List of districts of Aceh” and supporting sources
Where districts fit
Aceh sits at the northern tip of Sumatra and is one of Indonesia’s provinces, with special autonomy status. Below the province, Indonesia uses a layered system of local government. Aceh is divided into regencies (kabupaten) and cities (kota), and each of these is divided into districts (kecamatan). Districts in turn contain villages, called gampong in Aceh, and urban villages (kelurahan).
So the chain runs: province, then regency or city, then district, then gampong or kelurahan. The district is the middle layer that groups villages together and handles administration close to where people live.
The numbers
Aceh has 18 regencies and 5 cities. The Wikipedia article states that there were 289 districts as of 2022. The table on that page, however, lists fewer rows, and after correcting it we ended up with 267 districts. Of those, 242 are in regencies and 25 are in cities.
The spread is uneven:
Group
Examples
Districts
Largest regencies
Aceh Utara
27
Aceh Besar
23
Pidie
22
Aceh Timur
21
Mid-sized regencies
Bireuen, Aceh Selatan, Aceh Tengah
15 to 17 each
Smallest regencies
Nagan Raya, Aceh Jaya
5 and 6
Cities
Banda Aceh
9
Langsa, Subulussalam
5 each
Lhokseumawe
4
Sabang
2
Cities tend to have few districts because they are small in area. Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, has nine, while Sabang, a city on Weh Island, has only two (Sukajaya and Sukakarya).
District names follow some recognisable patterns. Many are split by direction with suffixes such as Barat (west), Timur (east), Utara (north), Selatan (south) and Tengah (central), as in Kluet Utara, Kluet Selatan, Kluet Tengah and Kluet Timur. Others are named after the seat of the regency, such as Lhoksukon in Aceh Utara or Meureudu in Pidie Jaya.
Aceh’s districts show how an Indonesian province is organised in practice: 23 regencies and cities, hundreds of districts, and a wide range in size between a sprawling regency like Aceh Utara and a small island city like Sabang.
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