Selangor ( ; ), also known by the Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east, Negeri Sembilan to the south, and the Strait of Malacca to the west. Selangor surrounds the federal territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, both of which were previously part of it. Selangor has diverse tropical rainforests and an equatorial climate. The state's mountain ranges belong to the Titiwangsa Mountains, which is part of the Tenasserim Hills that covers southern Myanmar, southern Thailand and Peninsular Malaysia, with Mount Semangkok as the highest point in the state.
The state capital of Selangor is Shah Alam, and its royal capital is Klang, Kajang is the largest municipality by total metropolitan population and Petaling Jaya is the largest municipality by total population within the city. Petaling Jaya and Subang Jaya received city status in 2006 and 2019, respectively. Selangor is one of four Malaysian states that contain more than one city with official city status; the others are Sarawak, Johor, and Penang.
The state of Selangor has the largest economy in Malaysia in terms of gross domestic product (GDP), with RM 384 billion (roughly $82 billion) in 2022, comprising 25.6% of the country's GDP. It is the most developed state in Malaysia; it has well-developed infrastructure, such as highways and transport, and has the largest population in Malaysia. It also has a high standard of living and the lowest poverty rate in the country.
Etymology
The origin of the name Selangor is uncertain. A common suggestion is that the name refers to the Malay word langau, a large fly or blowfly that is found in the marshes along the Selangor River (Sungai Selangor) in the state's north-west. According to local lore, a warrior who escaped from Malacca after the Portuguese conquest, took a break from his journey north and rested under a tree here. However, he was disturbed by a persistent fly, whereupon he decided to explore the area. When he found the place to his liking and chose to settle there, he named the place "satu (se) langau" meaning "a large blowfly".
In the absence of a firm etymological explanation, alternative theories abound. One suggestion is that the name may have originated from a kind of tree found in Kuala Selangor and along Selangor River named mentangau. Another theory claims the state's name is derived from the term Salang Ur where ur means "town" or "village" in Tamil, meaning village of the Salang people. and iron tools called "tulang mawas" ("ape bones") have been found in or near Klang. The Mao Kun map dating to the Ming dynasty and used by the Admiral Zheng He during his expeditions between 1405 and 1433 refers to places in Selangor such as the Klang River estuary (吉令港) and perhaps a hilly area. The Malay Annals indicate that the Selangor area was under the control of the Sultanate of Malacca in the 15th century; however, Selangor at that time was not a unified domain—separate river states such as Klang and Jeram existed in the region. In the 17th century, Johor was involved in a war against Jambi, and the Sultan of Johor engaged the help of Bugis mercenaries from Sulawesi to fight against Jambi. After Johor won, the Bugis stayed and started to gain power in the region. Initially there were only a few hundred Bugis who settled in the estuaries of the Selangor and Klang rivers as well as Linggi further south in the early 17th century, later when the Bugis had gained position of influence in Johor (the Bugis were given the position of Yam Tuan Muda having helped repel an attack from Siak), much larger number settled in Selangor by 1723. The most prominent of the Bugis were a group of five brothers. Some Minangkabaus, who mainly settled in Negeri Sembilan, may have also settled in Selangor by the 17th century, perhaps earlier. The Bugis and the Minangkabaus from Sumatra struggled for control of Johor; Raja Kecil, backed by the Minangkabaus, invaded but were driven off by the Bugis. In order to establish a power base, Raja Salehuddin, the son of Daeng Chelak (one of the five Bugis brothers) became Tengku Raja Selangor and founded the present hereditary Selangor Sultanate with its capital at Kuala Selangor in 1766. Selangor is unique as the only state on the Malay Peninsula that was founded by the Bugis.
In the 19th century, the economy of Selangor boomed due to the exploitation of its tin reserves; mining occurred in various parts of Selangor, for example in Ampang, that led to the growth of Kuala Lumpur. In 1854, the Sultan of Selangor granted Raja Abdullah control of Klang, passing over Raja Mahadi, the son of the chief who previously ruled Klang, which led to the Selangor Civil War fought between 1867 and 1874. The war between the Malay factions was also partly a struggle for control of the tin revenue. Tin mining had attracted a large number of Chinese migrant labourers, and Chinese clans allied with Selangor chiefs also joined the civil war. The conflicts between Malay and Chinese factions in Perak and Selangor, as well as concerns over piracy that affected coastal trade, led to increasing British involvement in the affairs of the Malay states.
250px|thumb|right|The [[Kota Darul Ehsan arch over the Federal Highway, which was built to commemorate the cession of Kuala Lumpur by Selangor to the federal government to form a Federal Territory.]]
In 1874, Sultan Abdul Samad of Selangor accepted a British Resident in a system that allowed the British to govern while the Sultan remained the apparent ruler. Klang was the capital of the British colonial administration of Selangor from 1875 until 1880 when it was moved to Kuala Lumpur. Under the stability imposed by the British, Selangor again prospered. In 1896, largely through the coordination of the Resident Frank Swettenham, Selangor united with Negeri Sembilan, Perak and Pahang to form the Federated Malay States, with Kuala Lumpur as its capital.
The Federated Malay States evolved into the Federation of Malaya in 1948, which became independent in 1957. The federation became known as Malaysia in 1963, when its existing states federated with the other British colonies of Sarawak, North Borneo and Singapore. The city of Kuala Lumpur functioned as the national capital of Malaysia and as the state capital of Selangor. In 1974, Selangor relinquished Kuala Lumpur to the federal government. The Sultan of Selangor commemorated the city's transfer by building an archway on the borders of the new Federal Territory and Selangor; this archway is the Kota Darul Ehsan that straddles a section of the Federal Highway between Bangsar and Petaling Jaya. The state capital was moved to Shah Alam after the cession.
Putrajaya, a new city designed to be the new administrative capital of Malaysia, was built by the federal government in Selangor; Sultan Salahuddin was asked again to cede land to the federal government. Putrajaya became a federal territory in 2001.
Geography
250px|thumb|The [[Titiwangsa Mountains in Ulu Yam]]
Selangor, with an area of approximately 8,000 km<sup>2</sup>, extends to the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The state is bordered north by Bernam River from Perak, south by Sepang River from Negeri Sembilan, east and southeast by the Titiwangsa Mountains from Pahang and Negeri Sembilan and the Strait of Malacca on the west, and surrounds the Federal Territories of Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
249px|thumb|[[Klang River, Klang]]
Topographically wise, Selangor is relatively level near the coast and gradually become more hilly and mountainous towards the east. The hill and mountain, surrounding the eastern and central portion of the state effectively forming a valley and a drainage basin of the Klang River, known as the Klang Valley, where most of the population are centered. The Klang Valley is often synonymously associated with another toponym, Greater Kuala Lumpur, though both terms vary between each other. Being one of the most heavily urbanised regions in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, cities that make up Klang Valley include the state and royal capitals of Shah Alam and Klang, as well as the federal capital, Kuala Lumpur, which is strategically situated in the heart of the state. It was once part of Selangor territory before it was ceded to the federal government in 1974 to form a Federal Territory. It was then followed by the 1995 cession of Prang Besar of Sepang District to the federal government, which became what is now the nation's administrative and judicial capital Putrajaya.
Selangor is divided into nine districts namely Sabak Bernam, Kuala Selangor, Hulu Selangor, Gombak, Petaling, Klang, Kuala Langat, Hulu Langat and Sepang.
Flora and Fauna
Silver Leaf Monkey in Bukit Melawati|thumb|180px
Commonwealth Forest Park|thumb|left
thumb|right|upright=1.1|alt=Map of Selangor showing tree-cover loss years, with forest remaining since 2000 in green and loss years shaded yellow through purple.|Tree-cover loss year in Selangor, 2001-2024, from the [[Global Forest Change dataset.]]
Malaysian forest can be classified as tropical rainforest. Selangor has 250,129 ha of permanent reserve forest, of which 82,890 ha are peat swamp forest and 18,998 ha formed mangrove forest along the coast. The permanent reserve forest makes up about 32 per cent of the state land. Forest parks that are situated in Selangor include Gabai Waterfall, Taman Rimba Templer, Taman Rimba Ampang, Taman Rimba Komanwel, Sungai Chongkak, Sungai Tua, Sungai Sendat, Sungai Tekala, Kanching, Gunung Nuang and Bukit Tabur.
Reserved forests in Selangor are managed and conserved by the state's forestry department, as the Constitution of Malaysia provides that forestry comes under the jurisdiction of the respective states. Selangor's forestry headquarters is located at the Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Shah Building, in Shah Alam.
Selangor is also home to a statutory agency of the Government of Malaysia, the Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM). Located in Kepong, FRIM promotes sustainable management and optimal use of forest resources in Malaysia by generating knowledge and technology through research, development and application in tropical forestry.
Selangor has a few declared protected areas (PAs) in order to safeguard biodiversity and wildlife. They are Sungai Dusun Wildlife Reserve which was created to protect the now-extirpated Sumatran Rhinos, Kutu Hill Wildlife Reserve, and Bukit Sungai Puteh Hill Wildlife Reserve which is located at Kuala Lumpur and Selangor's border. The state also has an ecotourism centre, Paya Indah Wetlands, which is located in the district Kuala Langat near Dengkil. It is a sanctuary to migratory and residential birds, introduced Nile hippos and crocodiles.
Several Nature Sites in Selangor are at risk from development. These include Shah Alam Community Forest which is being cleared for housing, roads and a cemetery. Similarly, Bukit Lagong forest reserve is at risk from quarrying and housing development. Another threat is development for tourism such as has been proposed for Kuala Selangor Nature Park.
Climate
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As in the rest of Malaysia, Selangor has a tropical rainforest climate (Köppen climate classification Af) bordering on a tropical monsoon climate. The climate is very much dictated by the surrounding sea and the prevailing wind system. It has high average temperature and high average rainfall.
Demographics
thumb|[[Sultan Salahuddin Abdul Aziz Mosque or Blue Mosque in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.]]
Selangor is Malaysia's most populous state; it has the nation's biggest conurbation, the Klang Valley. Selangor's geographical position in the centre of Peninsular Malaysia contributed to the state's rapid development as Malaysia's transportation and industrial hub, creating jobs and attracting migrants from other states and from other Asian countries, especially Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and China.
Selangor's population has increased considerably in recent decades, due mostly to the development of the Klang Valley. The population was 1,426,250 in 1980, and by 2000 it had grown to 3,941,316. and further increased to 5,482,141 in 2010. and reached 6,994,423 according to the 2020 census.
Ethnic groups
{|class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:right"
|-
!rowspan="2"|Ethnic Group
!colspan="6"|Population
|-
!colspan="2"|2010
!colspan="2"|2015
|-
|style="text-align:left" | Malay ||2,814,597 || 51.14% || 3,069,100 || 52.24% || ||
|-
|style="text-align:left" | Other Bumiputras || 62,657 || 1.14%|| 77,500 || 1.32% || ||
|- style="background: #eaf3ff"
|style="text-align:left" | Bumiputra total || 2,877,254 || 52.48% || 3,146,600 || 53.56% || 3,895,880 || 55.70%
|-
|style="text-align:left" | Chinese || 1,441,774 || 27.6%|| 1,499,400|| 25.52% || 1,756,181 || 25.11%
|-
|style="text-align:left" | Indian || 679,130 || 12.5% ||712,000 ||12.12% || 726,017 || 10.38%
|-
|style="text-align:left" | Others|| 42,163 || 0.80% || 41,400 || 0.72% || 52,357 || 0.75%
|- style="background: #eaf3ff"
|style="text-align:left" | Malaysian total || 5,040,321 || 92.20% || 5,399,400 || 91.92% || 6,430,435 || 91.94%
|-
|style="text-align:left" | Non-Malaysian || 421,820 ||6.82% ||474,700 || 8.08% || 563,988 || 8.06%
|- style="background: #c6e2ff"
|style="text-align:left"| Total|| 5,462,141|| 100.00%|| 5,874,100 || 100.00% || 6,994,423 || 100%
|}
The traditional culture of Selangor's Malay majority is also influenced by those of Bugis, Minangkabau, Mandailing, Javanese, and Banjarese ancestry; most of whom are Muslims. Javanese ancestry are dominant in west coast districts such as Sabak Bernam, Kuala Selangor, Klang, Kuala Langat and Sepang. Whereas Minangkabau descent are dominant in Gombak and Hulu Selangor. Selangor's population also includes ethnic Chinese and Indian influences; those two groups form the largest minority populations. The 3,000 Mah Meri people, part of the Orang Asli—the indigenous peoples of the Peninsula—can be found on Carey Island and maintain their culture and language while adapting to the modern way of life. With its advanced state of development, Selangor has more international ties through trade, business and education than other rural states.