Batam is an industrial boomtown, an emerging transport hub and part of a free trade zone in the Indonesia–Malaysia–Singapore Growth Triangle, located 20 km (12 mi) off Singapore's south coast.

[3][4][5] According to Statistics Indonesia's 2020 census, Batam had a municipal population of 1,196,396,[6] making it the third largest city in the region of Sumatra, after Medan and Palembang.

[1] The first recorded inhabitants at Batam Island are Malays known as Orang Laut, from the year 231 AD.

The Batam city government takes care of all population administration and civil registration as well as human resources.

[1] The table also includes the number of administrative villages within each district, all classed as urban kelurahan,[1] and its postal codes.

Today, Batam is inhabited by a heterogeneous mixture of people due to labor migration and desire to be close to Singapore; it is very diverse, two-thirds of the population are migrants.

The location of Batam, which is close to Singapore, is conducive to the development of economic, sociopolitical, and cultural aspects of the local community.

Christianity is also widely embraced by the people of Batam, especially those from the Batak and Nias people of North Sumatra (Protestantism) and migrants from Flores island in Nusa Tenggara Timur province, East Indonesia (Roman Catholicism) as well as Javanese Catholics from Yogyakarta and Central Java who emigrated to this province along with a minority of Chinese Indonesians and internal migrant Indian Indonesians from Medan, North Sumatra.

In addition, Hinduism in practiced by a quarter of its small ethnic Indian Indonesian minority as well as by its Balinese emigrant minority ethnic populace who migrated from the tourist island of Bali and are resident for business purposes in this city.

Other languages such as local Malay (similar to the Malaysian standard as spoken in neighbouring Malaysia and Singapore) since both varieties coexist with each other as the former is the official and national language widely spoken and used like in the rest of Indonesia whilst the latter is a trade language and widely spoken by Malaysian Malay expatriates from Johor, Malaysia as well as Malay Singaporeans from Singapore who reside for business purposes and also for historical purposes.

The usage of Mandarin and English are trending due to Singaporean influence, especially by expatriates living in Batam.

Being located close to the ports of Singapore, the speed of goods shipping and product distribution is increased, benefiting the island's economy.

With lower labor costs and special government incentives, it is the site of many factories operated by foreign companies.

[31] Under a framework signed in June 2006, Batam, along with parts of neighbouring Bintan and Karimun, are a part of a Special Economic Zone with Singapore; this zone eliminates tariffs and value-added taxes for goods shipped between Batam and Singapore.

And in 2016, the responsibility of industrial complex changed from the governor of Riau Islands Province to the Office of the Coordinating Economic Minister as per Presidential Decree No.

The most recent incident happened on 29 November 2015 when a ferry, 'Sea Prince', hit floating object(s) while en route to Singapore from Batam and began leaking.

[40][41] Signs showing a picture of a raised finger over a pair of lips have been placed in August 2014 at the Batam Centre International Ferry Terminal to request silence while queuing for immigration to hear names being called and clearly hear instructions given by the immigration officer.

[44] Domestic destinations include Pekanbaru, Palembang, Medan, Jakarta, Padang, Surabaya, Bandung, Bandar Lampung, Balikpapan, Yogyakarta, Makassar, and many more.

Due to piling works for touristic activity, sand mining, and logging for charcoal business, only 4.2% of Batam Island is covered in mangrove forests, a great decrease from 24% in 1970.