Bekasi Regency (; ; ) is a regency () of West Java Province, Indonesia. Its regency seat is in the district of Central Cikarang. It is bordered by Jakarta Special Region (the administrative cities of North Jakarta and East Jakarta) and by Bekasi City (which is a separate administration from the Regency) to the west, by Bogor Regency to the south, by Karawang Regency to the east and by the Java Sea to the north.
This highly urbanised area (largely suburban to Jakarta to its west) has a land area of and contained 2,630,401 people at the 2010 Census and 3,113,017 at the 2020 Census, with an average density of . The official estimate as at mid 2025 was 3,331,400 (comprising 1,683,152 males and 1,648,248 females), making it the fourth most populous regency in Indonesia after Bogor Regency, Bandung Regency and Tangerang Regency. The figures for Bekasi Regency exclude the area and population of the separate City of Bekasi (with 2,648,272 inhabitants in mid 2025), which lies between the Regency and Jakarta, and has been independent of the Regency since 16 December 1996.
The earliest evidence of the existence of Bekasi dates from the 5th century according to the Tugu inscription, which describes the name of two rivers that run through the city, i.e. Candrabhaga and Gomati and one of those rivers, i.e. Candrabhaga is the origin of the name Bekasi where the name Candrabhaga evolved into Bhagasasi due to the Sanskrit word candra which means moon evolved into Old Javanese word âÂÂsasiâ which also means moon and then the name Bhagasasi was misspelled as Bhagasi and then Dutch colonial government also misspelled the name Bhagasi as Bacassie and finally it became Bekasi.
During the colonial era, Bekasi was dominated by particuliere landerijen ('private domains'; ) which came under the rule of Landheeren (landlords). The landlords could impose taxation (cuke), tribute (upeti) and force labor (rodi) on the inhabitants of their private estates.
Among the most powerful gentry families in Bekasi was the Khouw family of Tamboen (). They ruled their extensive landholdings from their country house, landhuis Tamboen (now ).
Bekasi Regency is divided into 23 districts (kecamatan), tabulated below with their areas and their populations at the 2010 Census and the 2020 Census, together with the official estimates for mid 2025. They are grouped in the table below (in non-official geographical sectors) to indicate the approximate position of the districts. The table also includes the locations of the district administrative centres, the number of administrative villages in each district (totalling 180 rural desa and 7 urban kelurahan), and their post codes.
Notes: (a) includes the kelurahan of Sertajaya. (b) includes the kelurahan of Telaga Asih. (c) includes the kelurahan of Wanasari. <br>(d) includes the kelurahan of Jatimulya. (e) includes the two kelurahan of Bahagia and Kebalen. (f) includes the kelurahan of Setia Asih.