Meranti Islands Regency

Meranti Islands (Kepulauan Meranti) is an archipelago forming a regency (kabupaten) of Riau Province, and lies off the eastern coast of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia. It was created on 19 December 2008 by the separating of this archipelago from the mainland regency of Bengkalis. The regency comprises the islands of Tebing Tinggi, Rangsang, Padang and Merbau, together with minor offshore islands, but does not include Bengkalis Island which is geographically part of the archipelago but remains within Bengkalis Regency. The principal town is Selat Panjang (also written as Selatpanjang) on Tebing Tinggi Island. The regency covers an area of 3,623.93 km², and had a population of 176,290 at the 2010 Census and 206,116 at the 2020 Census; the official estimate as at mid 2022 was 213,532.