Map of Sumatera Barat

History

From the stories of the tambo passed from generation to generation, the ancestors of the Minangkabau people were the descendants of Iskandar Zulkarnain (Alexander the Great). This tambo story is more or less comparable to the Malay Annals who also tells how the Minangkabau people sent their representatives to ask Sang Sapurba, one of the descendants of Iskandar Zulkarnain, to become their king.

The Minang community is part of the Deutro-Malay community who migrated from Southern China to the island of Sumatra around 2,500–2,000 years ago. It is estimated that this community group entered from the east of the island of Sumatra, along the Kampar River to the highlands called darek which became the home of the Minangkabau people.

Geography

West Sumatra lies in the middle of the western coast of Sumatra, and has an area of 42,119.54 km2. Geographic features include plains, mountainous volcanic highlands formed by the Barisan mountain range that runs from north-west to south-east, and an offshore island archipelago called the Mentawai Islands. The West Sumatran coastline faces the Indian Ocean and stretches 375 km from North Sumatra province in the north-west to Bengkulu in the south-east. The lakes of West Sumatra include: Maninjau (99.5 km2), Singkarak (130.1 km2), Diatas (31.5 km2), Dibawah (14.0 km2) and Talang (5.0 km2). Most of the rivers in West Sumatra flow into the Strait of Malacca, include: Batanghari, Kampar, Ombilin and Sinamar, and others flow into the Indian Ocean, include: Kuranji, Anai and Arau.

Economy

Gradually, the economy of West Sumatra began to move positively after experiencing pressure due to the impact of the 2009 earthquake that hit the region. The impact of this disaster was seen in quarter IV-2009, where economic growth only reached 0.90%. But now the economy of West Sumatra has improved, with growth rates above the national average. In 2022 the West Sumatra economy grew by 4.36%, better than the previous year which was only 3.29%. The high economic growth of West Sumatra in the past three years has reduced poverty in the province from 6.28% (2020) to 5.92% (2022). For the Gross Regional Domestic Revenue (GRDP), in 2022 the province had a GRDP of Rp 285.4 trillion, with a GDP per capita of Rp 50.6 million.

Demographics

The census population of West Sumatra was 2.8 million in 1971, 3.4 million in 1980, 4.0 million in 1990, 4.25 million in 2000, 4.85 million in 2010, and 5.53 million in 2020, of whom 2,786,360 were male and 2,748,112 were female. In 2010, 88% were recorded by the Badan Pusat Statistik as Minangkabau people. Batak people, mainly from Mandailing sub-ethnic group, and Javanese comprised 4% of the population respectively, while Mentawai people, who live in the Mentawai islands, made up 1%.