located (see attacks on humanitarian workers). Geography West Timor is a non-political region that comprises the western half of Timor island with the exception of Oecusse district (which is politically part of East Timor) and forms a part of the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara. The land area of West Timor is . The highest point of West Timor is Mount Mutis, at . West Timor has large and wide-ranging savannas, and has fairly dry air temperatures, with minimal rainfall. Rote Island, the southernmost island of Indonesia, is southwest of West Timor. West Timor's largest town and chief port is Kupang, the capital of Nusa Tenggara Timur province. West Timor lies between Australia and East Timor which makes the island a strategic place for Indonesian trade. Administration West Timor is part of the East Nusa Tenggara province. It was formerly split into the City of Kupang (a kabupaten or regency-level administrative area) and four regencies (kabupaten); from west to east these are: City of Kupang, Kupang, Timor Tengah Selatan (South Central Timor), Timor Tengah Utara (North Central Timor) and Belu. However, a fifth regency – Malaka – was in 2012 formed from the southern half of Belu Regency. Note the administrative area has shrunk as Rote Ndao Regency (Rote and Ndao islands to the southwest) and Sabu Raijua Regency (the Savu Islands further west) were split off in 2002 and 2009 respectively from Kupang Regency. The island accounts for 35.5% of the provincial population. Population There were approximately 2,011,735 inhabitants in mid 2020, some of them refugees who had fled the 1999 violence in East Timor. Languages In addition to the national language, Indonesian, native languages belonging to the Fabronic Stock of the Austronesian group of languages are spoken in West Timor, the others in East Timor. These languages include Uab Meto, Tetum, Ndaonese, Rotinese and Helong. Knowledge of Dutch (the colonial language) is now limited to the older generations. Religion Similar to East Timor, Christianity is the religion of the overwhelming majority (97%) of the people of West Timor, 53% being Catholic and 36% being Protestant. Islam is followed by 9.7%. The remaining 0.2% includes Hindus and Buddhists. From the Catholic missionary Apostolic Vicariate of Dutch Timor stem the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Kupang and its suffragan Diocese of Atambua. Economy West Timor has an average unemployment rate of 2.39%. 30% of the population lived below the poverty line