Banggai Islands Regency


The Banggai Archipelago is a group of islands located at the far eastern end of Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. It makes up a regency of Central Sulawesi Province of Indonesia, created on 4 October 1999 by splitting the existing Banggai Regency into a residual Banggai Regency situated on the mainland of Sulawesi and a new Banggai Islands Regency then comprising the entire archipelago. On 14 December 2012 a splitting of the Banggai Islands archipelago took place with the removal of the more southerly seven districts from the 13-year-old regency to form a separate Banggai Laut Regency.
The reduced Banggai Islands Regency thus consists almost entirely of the main island of Peleng, together with various small offshore islands, of which the largest is Bangkalan Island off the north coast of Peleng. It covers an area of 2,488.79 km2 and had a population of 109,384 at the 2010 census and 120,142 at the 2020 census; the official population estimate as at mid 2024 was 130,008. The archipelago is surrounded by the Banda Sea's Gulf of Tolo, and the Molucca Sea. The Peleng Straits separate Peleng from the mainland of Sulawesi.

Administrative districts

The Banggai Islands Regency is divided into twelve districts, tabulated below with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census and the 2020 Census, together with the official estimates as at mid 2024. The table also includes the location of the district headquarters, the numbers of administrative villages and of offshore islands in each district, and its postal codes.
Kode
Wilayah
Name of
District
Area
in
km2
Pop'n
Census
2010
Pop'n
Census
2020
Pop'n
Estimate
mid 2024
Admin
centre
No.
of
villages
No.
of
islands
Post
codes
72.07.03Totikum155.459,86910,47311,457Sambiut11494884
72.07.15Totikum Selatan
95.198,0368,4999,521Kalumbatan8-94887
72.07.04Tinangkung312.6013,20117,19418,924Salakan11 5294885
72.07.11Tinangkung Selatan 187.897,2047,9898,667Mansamat9-94885
72.07.19Tinangkung Utara 136.657,6708,6949,464Batulombo6-94886
72.07.05Liang176.198,7688,53110,499Liang166594883
72.07.16Peling Tengah
140.009,24410,39711,028Patukuki11-94888
72.07.06Bulagi275.669,5299,4939,862Bulagi Satu16 294882
72.07.09Bulagi Selatan
319.009,7169,71310,664Lolantang20894882
72.07.17Bulagi Utara
318.008,8909,64010,209Sambulangan12 -94889
72.07.07Buko184.849,3569,88010,533Tabata132194881
72.07.18Buko Selatan
187.327,8818,6499,230Lumbi-lumbia11-94880
Totals2,488.79109,364120,142130,008144224

Notes: including the kelurahan of Salakan. including the kelurahan of Bulagi. including the kelurahan of Sabang.

Transportation

Merpati Nusantara Airlines served the islands from Palu. There is also a bus service via Luwuk and thence by boat or ship to Banggai.

Endangered Banggai Cardinalfish

The Banggai Islands is home to the Banggai cardinalfish. This species has an extremely limited geographic range and small total population size. The Banggai cardinalfish is composed of isolated populations concentrated around the shallows of 17 large and 10 small islands within the Banggai Archipelago.
It is threatened by extinction due to collection for the aquarium trade.

Climate

Salakan has a tropical rainforest climate with moderate rainfall from August to January and heavy rainfall from February to July.