Bacan Islands

Bacan

Topographic map of Bacan and other nearby islands.
Geography
Location	Southeast Asia
Coordinates	00°36′54″S 127°30′54″E / 0.61500°S 127.51500°E / -0.61500; 127.51500
Archipelago	Moluccas (Maluku Islands)
Area	2,792.85 km2 (1,078.33 sq mi)
Highest elevation	2,111 m (6926 ft)
Highest point	Buku Sibela
Administration
Indonesia
Demographics
Population	115,612 (mid 2022)
Pop. density	414/km2 (1072/sq mi)

The Bacan Islands, formerly also known as the Bachans, Bachians, and Batchians,^[1] are a group of islands in the Moluccas in Indonesia. They are mountainous and forested, lying south of Ternate and southwest of Halmahera. The islands are administered by the South Halmahera Regency of North Maluku Province. They formerly constituted the Sultanate of Bacan.

Bacan (Dutch: Batjan),^[2] formerly also known as Bachian^[3][2] or Batchian,^[4] is the group's largest island. The second and third-largest islands are Kasiruta and Mandioli.^[3] Bacan Island in 2020 included about 82,387 people, of which about 10,000 live in the capital Labuha; it is subdivided into seven districts. Kasiruta and Mandioli each have over 11,000 inhabitants, and each is subdivided into two districts. A fourth island, Bacan Lomang, forms a twelfth district within the group. There are dozens of smaller islands in the group, which had a total population of 84,075 at the 2010 Census,^[5] but by the 2020 Census had risen to 111,517.^[6] The official estimate as at mid 2022 was 115,612.^[7]