This page is a short summary containing more general information about the province of Riau. Extensive information on Riau can be found in the directories 'Sumatra' and 'Riau' on this website.

Location map of Riau.

Riau is a province of Indonesia, located in the center of Sumatra island along the Strait of Malacca. The provincial capital and largest city is Pekanbaru. Other major cities includes Dumai and Bengkalis.

Indonesian was based on the Riau version of Malay. Riau is one of the richest provinces in Indonesia. This province is rich with natural resources, particularly petroleum and natural gas, rubber, and palm oil. The majority of the province are heavily forested lowlands; logging is a major industry in the province.

Being a shallow province, the coastal regions are rapidly losing land to the ocean. The Riau Islands were part of Riau until 2004, when they were made into a separate province.