The Bantenese are an indigenous ethnic group native to Banten in the westernmost part of Java island, Indonesia. The area of Banten province corresponds more or less with the area of the former Banten Sultanate, a Bantenese nation state that preceded Indonesia. In his book "The Sultanate of Banten", Guillot Claude writes on page 35: “These estates, owned by the Bantenese of Chinese descent, were concentrated around the village of Kelapadua.” Most of Bantenese are Sunni Muslim. The Bantenese speak the Sundanese-Banten dialect, a variety of the Sundanese language which does not have a general linguistic register, this language is called Basa Sunda Banten.

Banten is the westernmost province on the island of Java, Indonesia. Its capital city is Serang and its largest city is Tangerang. The province borders West Java and the Special Capital Region of Jakarta on the east, the Java Sea on the north, the Indian Ocean on the south, and the Sunda Strait on the west and shares a maritime border with Bengkulu and Lampung to the east and Bangka Belitung Islands to the north. The province covers an area of 9,352.77 km2 (3,611.12 sq mi). It had a population of over 11.9 million in the 2020 census, up from about 10.6 million in 2010. The estimated mid-2023 population was 12.308 million. Formerly part of the province of West Java, Banten was split off to become a province on 17 October 2000.