Yellow Signal for Jakarta's Suburbanisation, Residents Increasingly Moving to Buffer Cities

JAKARTA, KOMPAS.com - The movement of residents from Jakarta to buffer areas has shown an increase in recent years. Since 2023, data from the DKI Jakarta Civil Registry and Population Records Office (Dukcapil) indicates that more residents are leaving Jakarta than new arrivals. Urban planning observer M. Aziz Muslim describes this phenomenon as a “yellow signal” of suburbanisation. “We can call it a yellow signal of the suburbanisation process,” Aziz told Kompas.com on Thursday (30/4/2026). He explained that suburbanisation involves movement from the city centre to peripheral areas, generally driven by the desire for a better life, from housing to quality of life. “In this case, it could be seeking better housing, affordable living costs, higher quality of life, and I think this has already started happening in Jakarta,” he said. “The influx of new arrivals to Jakarta after Eid 2026 was recorded as declining. Conversely, the number of residents leaving the capital increased and was even nearly double that of those entering,” said Denny on Tuesday (5/5/2026). Data records 12,766 arrivals, while 22,617 residents left during the period from 25 March to 30 April 2026. The trend of declining arrivals has also been evident in recent years. From 2021–2023, the number of post-Eid arrivals was still above 20,000 people, then dropped to around 16,000 in 2024 and 2025. However, the surge in movements does not entirely reflect real mobility. Part of it is influenced by population document management programmes. Since 2024, the DKI Jakarta Provincial Government has encouraged residents to adjust their ID card addresses to their actual residences. As a result, hundreds of thousands of residents have recorded changes to their population administration. The former Head of Dukcapil, Budi Awaluddin, previously stated that in 2024, there were 321,782 residents moving out of Jakarta, as well as 105,061 inter-regional movements within DKI. In 2024, Jakarta residents moving to Bogor Regency numbered 49,473, followed by Bekasi Regency (40,440), Depok City (40,320), Bekasi City (33,868), South Tangerang City (26,508), Tangerang City (23,452), Tangerang Regency (19,929), Karawang (3,782), and Bogor City (2,864). The number of residents leaving Jakarta exceeding new arrivals has been evident since 2023.