The local Siak people could not resist the aggressive Dutch invasion.

A Portuguese military expedition explored the Siak river in 1514, searching for a kingdom believed to exist in the region, as well as pursuing followers of Sultan Mahmud Shah who tried to escape income taxes following the fall of the Malacca Sultanate.Ī second theory suggests that Riau is a mutation of the local word riahi, meaning 'sea air'.Ī third theory says that the province was named after a singer popular in local communities, who was described as rioh ('boisterous').Ī fourth theory instead asserts that rioh was a description of locals by settlers from Johor led by Raja Kecik in 1719. One suggests that it is a mutation of the Portuguese name 'Rio River', referring to a local river. Three theories exist for the origin of Riau's name. Several theories exist for the origin of the word Riau province. and according to the estimate for January 2014 this had risen to 6,358,636. The provincial population was 5,538,367 at the 2010 census. Riau has been a significant exception, with increasing rates every decade since 1970 to a 4.35 percent annual rise for the 1990s however, this rate slowed significantly during the subsequent decade.

Since the 1970s, much of Indonesia has experienced a decline in population growth rates. Extensive logging and plantation development in has led to a massive decline in forest cover Riau, and associated fires have contributed to haze across the larger region. Riau is currently one of the richest provinces in Indonesia and is rich in natural resources, particularly petroleum, natural gas, rubber, palm oil and fibre plantations. Riau has a wet tropical climate with average rainfall ranging between 2000-3000 millimeters per year, and the average rainfall per year is about 160 days. The total area for Riau province is 87,023.66 km², which stretches from the slopes of the Bukit Barisan to the Strait of Malacca. The province shares land borders with North Sumatra to the northwest, West Sumatra to the west, and Jambi to the south.

Other major cities include Dumai, Selat Panjang, Bagansiapiapi, Bengkalis, Bangkinang, Rengat and Siak Sri Indrapura. The provincial capital of Riau Province and its largest city is Pekanbaru. Until 2004 the province included the offshore Riau Islands, a large group of small islands (of which the principal islands are Batam and Bintan) located east of Sumatra Island and south of Singapore, before these islands were split off as Riau Islands Province in July 2004. It is located in the central eastern coast of Sumatra along the Strait of Malacca. Riau ( Jawi: Template:Script/Arabic, Template:Zh) is a province of Indonesia.

Data penduduk riau