Medan is Indonesia's largest city outside
Java, and its fourth largest altogether (after
Jakarta,
Surabaya and
Bandung). The population more than quadrupled in less than fifty years, growing from 568,000 in 1968 to 2.1 million in 2010 and to 2.5 million in 2025. As of 2020, the
larger metropolitan area had a population of 4,756,863, rising to 4,944,979 in mid 2024.
Ethnicities and languages is the largest ethnic group in Medan. The dominant ethnic groups in Medan are
Batak and
Javanese, with smaller
Malays,
Chinese,
Acehnese,
Indian,
Nias, and
Sundanese populations. The
Bataks in Medan are of three subethnicities. The native
Karo mostly live in the southern parts of Medan, including Padang Bulan, Medan Johor and Tuntungan. The
Toba, whom the Dutch employed on their oil palm plantations, live in Marindal and Amplas, or in nearby city centres such as the Medan Perjuangan district. Finally, the
Mandailing, who migrated to Medan after Indonesian independence in search of job opportunities, mainly live in Medan Tembung. The primary languages spoken by Bataks in Medan are
Batak and
Karo. The large
Javanese community in Medan is primarily composed of the descendants of people transported from Java in the 19th century to be employed as contract workers at various plantations in
North Sumatra. For the most part, they speak the local language of
Javanese. The
Malays are also natives of Medan, having lived as fishermen in the outskirts of the city since the
Aru era. Starting in the 18th century, they began to spread throughout the city, with large numbers living in Medan Maimun, Kota Matsum, Labuhan and Belawan and speaking
Malay. Immigration from southern China to Deli began in the 16th century, and accelerated in the 19th and early 20th centuries as immigrants sought employment as planters and coolies. Medan is home to the largest
Chinese population in Sumatra, mostly concentrated around the city centre. Most Chinese people in Medan speak
Medan Hokkien, a local dialect, but many also speak
Mandarin,
Teochew, or
Cantonese.
Minangkabau came to Medan since the late of the 19th century. Minangs migration surged from the 1960s to the 1980s, becoming 10.9% of the population and founding
Padang restaurants throughout the city. Most Minangkabau people in Medan speak
Minangkabau. They are mostly concentrated around the city centre, near Central Market (
Pajak Sentral), Kota Matsum and Sukaramai. Many
Acehnese sought sanctuary in Medan after the
insurgency in Aceh in the late 1970s. They now own a number of
Mie Aceh restaurants around the Setia Budi and Sunggal areas. Most speak
Acehnese, and
Gayonese is also common. Medan also has a substantial
Tamil Indonesian community.
Kampung Madras, a busy area in the city centre, is well-known as a Tamil neighbourhood. The different linguistic communities in Medan communicate in a slang called
Bahasa Medan or
Dialek Medan (
Medanese slang). This dialect of Indonesian includes loanwords from the various local languages, especially Malay.
Religion Most of Medan's inhabitants are
Muslim, accounting for approximately 65.78 percent of the population. The substantial
Christian demographic (about 25 percent of the total population) includes
Catholics,
Methodists, and
Lutherans, such as the
Batak Christian Protestant Church. Buddhists make up about 9 percent of the population, and there are smaller
Hindu,
Confucian, and
Sikh communities. Some Bataknese follow traditional religions such as
Pemena and
Parmalim.
Gunung Timur Temple, on
Jalan Hang Tuah, is Medan's oldest
Taoist temple.
Maha Vihara Maitreya, on Jalan Cemara Asri, is the largest
Buddhist temple in southeast Asia. The city's oldest church,
Medan Cathedral, on Jalan Pemuda, was originally built as by the Dutch and Indian community.
Sri Mariamman Temple, on Jalan Zainul Arifin in
Kampung Madras, is the city's oldest Hindu temple, built around 1881; it is surrounded by over a hundred statues of various deities.
Graha Maria Annai Velangkanni, a Catholic church in an Indo-Mogul style, was built on Jalan Sakura III in 2005, dedicated to a
Marian apparition in 17th century
Tamil Nadu. At one point before and during the Japanese occupation of the city, Japanese migrants created a
Shinto shrine,
Hirohara Shrine, to accommodate the increasing worshipers of Japanese residents. It was later rebuilt during the Japanese occupation of the city in 1944 to accommodate the mandatory worship by locals. ==Economy==