West Jakarta is not self-governed and does not have a city council, hence it is not classified as a proper municipality.

West Jakarta is famous for its Dutch colonial relics such as Town Hall Building (now Jakarta History Museum in Jakarta Old Town), Chinatown (Glodok) and also a number of old churches, mosques, and fortresses of early Dutch colonization in Batavia at that time.

West Jakarta Administrative City (Kota Administrasi Jakarta Barat) is subdivided into eight districts (kecamatan), listed below with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census[2] and 2020 Census,[3] together with the official estimates as at mid 2023:[1] The table also includes the number of administrative villages in each district (all classed as urban kelurahan), together with their names and post codes.

Like the rest of the city, public school system are available in West Jakarta.

Recently, The Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (MACAN) has also opened in West Jakarta.