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city in Central Java Province, Indonesia
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Surakarta (Javanese: ꦯꦸꦫꦏꦂꦠ, Pegon: سوراكارتا), known colloquially as Solo (Javanese: ꦱꦭ, romanized: Sålå), is a major city in Central Java, Indonesia. The 46.72 km2 (18.04 sq mi) city adjoins Karanganyar Regency and Boyolali Regency to the north, Karanganyar Regency and Sukoharjo Regency to the east and west, and Sukoharjo Regency to the south. On the eastern side of Solo flows Solo River (Bengawan Solo). Its metropolitan area, consisting of Surakarta City and the surrounding six regencies ("Greater Solo Area", formerly Special Region of Surakarta), was home to 6,899,402 inhabitants according to the official estimates for mid 2025, 529,079 of whom resided in the city proper (comprising 260,347 males and 268,732 females).
Surakarta is the birthplace of former President of Indonesia Joko Widodo, as well as his son and current Vice President of Indonesia, Gibran Rakabuming Raka. The former served as Mayor of Surakarta from 2005 to 2012, as did the latter from 2021 to 2024.
Hominid habitation in the region of Surakarta is evidenced from roughly one million years ago, the age of the "Java Man" skeleton found 80 kilometres upstream. Another famous early hominid from this area is called "Solo Man".
The Surakarta area was part of the Mataram kingdom and at this time a village called Wulayu seems to have already existed in or around the present-day city of Surakarta, as evidenced by a ferry charter issued by Balitung in A.D. 904. The Majapahit Empire renewed this ferry charter in 1358.
By the 18th century, the village had acquired the name of Sala. This name is said to be derived from the sala tree. As the Javanese pronunciation "Sala" ([sɔlɔ]) was considered difficult to pronounce by the Dutch, the name later morphed into "Solo" ([solo]).
In 1745, based on astrological calculations and Dutch commercial interest, Surakarta was chosen to be the new capital of the Mataram Sultanate which was on the verge of becoming a vassal state of the Dutch East India Company. The formal name is derived from the previous capital Kartasura. The official court history claims that Surakarta originally stood on a lake, which was drained by the favor of the mythical queen of the southern sea, Kanjeng Ratu Kidul.
In the ensuing colonial era, the kingdom of Mataram was divided into the Surakarta Sunanate (northern court) and the Yogyakarta Sultanate (southern court). Surakarta was ruled by hereditary monarchs, who were given the unique Javanese cultural title Susuhunan. Since both Surakarta and Yogyakarta had become vassal states of the Dutch, traditional court arts, notably gamelan, were developed to demonstrate cultural power instead of developing military power.
Perhaps the most significant ruler of the 20th century was Pakubuwono X. His relationship with the Dutch, his large family, and his popularity contributed to perhaps the largest funeral procession that ever occurred in Surakarta. He had spent a large amount of money on the Royal Graveyard at Imogiri, both the main sections of the graveyard and the new section where he was buried. In the era just before independence, Surakarta had European, Chinese, and Arab quarters.
After hearing the proclamation of Indonesian Independence, Pakubuwono XII declared Surakarta a part of the Republic of Indonesia. Because of this support, President Sukarno declared Surakarta a Special Region with the Susuhunan, Pakubuwono XII, continuing as governor. This terminology was also used for the Special Region of Yogyakarta, which continues to be legally governed by its sultan to this day. However, unlike Yogyakarta, Surakarta had intense, organized resistance to the continuation of the monarchy. In October 1945, a republican movement was established in Surakarta led by Tan Malaka, a member of the Indonesian Communist Party.
On 17 October, the vizier of Surakarta, KRMH Sosrodiningrat V (a member of the BPUPK), was kidnapped. The new vizier, KRMT Yudonagoro, and 9 other court officials were also kidnapped by the same movement in March 1946, including the heir to the viziership KRMTH Wuryaningrat.
In response, Prime Minister of Indonesia Sutan Syahrir met with Wuryaningrat and other Surakarta leaders in May and agreed to abolish the established government entirely.
On 16 June 1946, the Surakarta "special region" was abolished and replaced with a regency (kabupaten), administered by a republican government outside the control of the Susuhunan and his court. This event is commemorated as the birthday of the city of Surakarta.
On 26 June Sutan Syahrir was kidnapped in Surakarta by a rebel movement led by Major General Soedarsono, the commander of the 3rd division. President Sukarno was angry at this kidnapping and on 1 July 1946, 14 communist leaders including Tan Malaka were arrested by Indonesian police on Sukarno's instructions. However, Soedarsono freed the rebel leaders immediately. Sukarno asked the local military commander in Surakarta, Lieutenant Colonel Suharto to arrest Soedarsono and the rebel group.
Suharto refused to follow this command unless it was given directly by the Military Chief of Staff, General Soedirman. Sukarno was angry at this rejection of his commanding authority and called Suharto a stubborn (koppig) officer.
Suharto pretended to support the rebellion and persuaded Soedarsono and his group to stay at his headquarters at Wiyoro, Surakarta for their safety. Later that night he persuaded Soedarsono to meet Sukarno at his palace the next morning. Suharto secretly informed the presidential guard troops about Soedarsono's plan on the next morning. On July 3, 1946, Soedarsono and his group were arrested by the presidential guard near the palace. Syahrir was released unharmed. Several months later, Soedarsono and his group were pardoned and released from prison.
However, this did not halt the ascendancy of the Communist Party in Surakarta. In November 1946, the communists kidnapped the regent and vice-regent and seized power for themselves, a coup quickly legitimated after the fact by Sukarno. In 1947, Amir Sjarifuddin appointed Wikana, a communist, as Surakarta's military governor.
In December 1948, the Dutch attacked and occupied the cities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta as part of Operation Kraai. The Indonesian Army, led by General Soedirman, started a guerrilla war in surrounding areas. The Dutch declared that the Republic had been destroyed and no longer existed. To disprove this, the Indonesian army conducted large-scale raids into the cities of Yogyakarta and Surakarta, called Serangan Oemoem. On 7 August 1949, Indonesian troops led by Slamet Riyadi managed to defeat the Dutch troops and occupied the city for several hours. To commemorate this event, the main street of the city of Surakarta was renamed Brigadier General Slamet Riyadi Street.
Surakarta remained under communist control until October 1965. Local government was unclear about how to proceed after the 30 September Movement and went about business as usual. As a result, Suharto's forces entered Surakarta without resistance, mobilized local youth paramilitaries, and indiscriminately slaughtered the entire local government.
The water sources for Surakarta are in the valley of Merapi, a total of 19 locations, with a capacity of 3,404 L/second (899.2 U.S. gal/sec). The average source water height is 800–1,200 m (2,600–3,900 ft) above sea level. In 1890–1927 there were only 12 wells in Surakarta. Today, underground water wells in 23 locations produce about 45 L/second (11.9 U.S. gal/sec).
In March 2006, Surakarta's state water company (PDAM) had a production capacity of 865.02 L/second (228.5 U.S. gal/sec): from Cokrotulung, Klaten, 27 km (17 mi) from Surakarta, 387 L/s (102.2 U.S. gal/sec); and from 26 deep wells, with a total capacity of 478.02 L/second (126.3 U.S. gal/sec). The total reservoir capacity is 9,140 m3 (,414,533 U.S. gala) nd can serve 55,22% of the population.
Surakarta features a tropical monsoon climate (Köppen: Am). with a lengthy wet season spanning from October through May, and a relatively short dry season covering the remaining four months (June through September). On average Surakarta receives just under 2,200 mm (87 in) of rainfall annually, with its wettest months being December, January, and February. As is common in areas featuring a tropical monsoon climate, temperatures are relatively consistent throughout the year. Surakarta's average temperature is roughly 30 °C every month (86 °F).
After Surakarta became a city, it was divided into five districts (kecamatan), each led by a camat, and subdivided into 51 kelurahan (now 54), each led by a lurah. The districts of Surakarta City are tabulated below with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census and 2020 Census together with the latest official estimates as of mid 2025. The table also includes the locations of the district administrative centres, the number of administrative villages in each district (all classed as urban kelurahan), and the district postal codes:
Notes: (a) also spelled "Lawiyan". (b) except the kelurahan of Jagalan, which has the postcode of 57162.
Surakarta as a densely populated core city in Central Java, and its second city, spills considerably into neighboring regencies. Surakarta City and its surrounding regencies, Karanganyar, Sragen, Wonogiri, Sukoharjo, Klaten, and Boyolali, are collectively called the Former Surakarta Residency (Dutch: Residentie Soerakarta).
Though a traffic study quotes the population as 1,158,000 as of 2008, this reflects only the continuously built-up area, as the city affects entire neighboring regencies by significantly driving up overall population densities in Sukoharjo Regency and Klaten Regency over the already dense countryside. Furthermore, the government of Indonesia officially defines a broader region as Surakarta's extended metropolitan zone, with the acronym "Subosukawonosraten" (for SUrakarta, BOyolali, SUkoharjo, KAranganyar, WONOgiri, SRAgen, KlaTEN) as the city and the entire 6 surrounding regencies, which reflects a broader planning region, though not a core metropolitan area as some of its regencies are not particularly suburbanized. Both the metropolitan area and extended areas border Yogyakarta's metropolitan area, while only the extended metropolitan area borders Kedungsapur or Greater Semarang.
One of the earliest censuses held in Surakarta Residency (Residentie Soerakarta) was in 1885. At that time, with an area of about 5,677 km2 (2,192 sq mi), there were 1,053,985 people in Surakarta Residency, including 2,694 Europeans and 7,543 Indonesian-Chinese. The area is 130 times the current area of Surakarta and had a population density of 186 people/km2 (480 people/mi2). The capital of the residency itself (roughly the size of the City of Solo proper) in 1880 had 124,041 people living in it.
According to the 2009 estimate, there were 245,043 males and 283,159 females (a sex ratio of 86.54) in Surakarta. 119,951 of the population were 14 years or younger, 376,180 were between 15 and 64, and 32,071 were above 65. The number of households was 142,627 and the average number of household members was 3.7. The population growth in the last 10 years was about 0.565% per year.
The labor force of Solo in 2009 was 275,546, of whom 246,768 were working, while 28,778 were seeking work. Another 148,254 people aged 15 and above were not in the labor force. Based on employment numbers, the most common work in Solo was worker/paid employee (112,336), followed by self-employee (56,112), self-employee assisted by temporary employee (32,769), unpaid employee (20,193), self-employee assisted by permanent employee (14,880), freelance employee in non-agricultural work (10,241), and freelance employee in agricultural work (237). Based on the industry, most people in Solo worked in trade (106,426), services (59,780), manufacturing (42,065), communication (16,815), construction (9,217), financing (9,157), or agriculture (2,608), and the rest in mining, electricity, gas, and water companies (700).
The mean working week in Solo was 47.04 hours (47.74 for men and 46.13 for women), and 212,262 people worked more than 35 hours per week compared to 34,506 who worked less than that.
According to 2009 statistics, 242,070 people above 15 in the city had finished high school, while 86,890 had only finished junior high school, and 94,840 were still in school or had only finished elementary school. The percentage of high-school graduates was the highest of the cities and regencies in Central Java.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Surakarta”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.