How Bali’s eight regencies and one municipality work

Bali is an Indonesian province made up of eight regencies and one municipality: Jembrana, Tabanan, Badung, Gianyar, Klungkung, Bangli, Karangasem, Buleleng and Denpasar. This administrative structure matters because official statistics, public services and local government responsibilities are organised at province, regency and municipality levels.

How many local governments does Bali have?

Bali has eight regencies and one municipality, according to the Bali provincial government’s 2025 local-government performance report. Denpasar is the province’s municipality; the other eight local governments are regencies.

The structure is set out under Law No. 15 of 2023 on Bali Province, which is cited in the provincial report. The report lists Jembrana, Tabanan, Badung, Gianyar, Klungkung, Bangli, Karangasem and Buleleng as regencies, alongside Denpasar.

What is the difference between a regency and Denpasar?

In Indonesia, a regency and a municipality are both second-level administrative areas, but they are different legal categories. Bali’s eight regencies generally cover areas outside the provincial capital, while Denpasar is administered as a municipality.

For statistical reporting, BPS therefore presents Bali’s population projections by “regency/municipality”, treating Denpasar as the municipality and the other eight areas as regencies, according to BPS-Statistics Indonesia’s 2025 population-projection table.

How many people live in Bali?

Bali’s provincial government report, using BPS data, gives an estimated 2025 population of 4.34 million people. The same report identifies Buleleng as the regency with the largest projected population at 820.4 thousand, while Denpasar is listed at 762.4 thousand.

Those figures are projections rather than a new population census count. BPS publishes the figures by gender and by each regency or municipality, making the data useful for comparing administrative areas without treating estimates as exact headcounts.

Why does this structure matter to visitors and residents?

Addresses, permits, local regulations and public services can depend on which of Bali’s nine second-level governments a place belongs to. A location in Badung, for example, falls under a different regency administration from a location in Denpasar, even though the two areas are adjacent and closely connected economically.

The division also shapes how official data is read: BPS tables can separate provincial totals into eight regencies and one municipality, while provincial planning documents use the same administrative units for population and development reporting.

Sources

• Bali Provincial Government
• BPS-Statistics Indonesia Bali Province