Map - Rawang, Selangor (Rawang)

Rawang is a town and a mukim in Gombak District, Selangor, Malaysia, about 23 km northwest of city centre Kuala Lumpur.

Rawang was founded in the early-19th century and was one of Kuala Lumpur earliest satellite towns. During the initial tin mining growth of Kuala Lumpur, many tin mines were explored and opened north of Kuala Lumpur, starting initially at the Ulu Kelang area and gradually moving northwards past Selayang and towards Rawang.

The earliest estimates of Rawang's founding date back to 1825. It was the second area in Selangor to be explored for tin mining. The tin mining industry in Rawang developed concurrently at around the same time as the larger tin mines Perak.

During the Selangor Civil War of the 1860s and 1870s, Yap Ah Loy's gangs who were aligned with Tengku Kudin repelled Syed Mashor's troops away from Kuala Lumpur and pushed them further north. During the Battle of Rawang in 1871, Syed Mashor's followers and Chinese gangs loyal to him (led by Chong Chong) ended up being pushed up towards Serendah and Kuala Kubu Bharu, with Yap Ah Loy's men (led by Chung Piang) holding their ground at Rawang. Thus, Rawang became an unofficial boundary of Tengku Kudin's dominance at the northern Klang Valley during the war.

In 1894, the first electric generator in British Malaya was installed in Rawang to support the mining industry, making Rawang the first location to be electrified in Malaysia. Numerous electrified tin mines were operated by Loke Yew and K. Thamboosamy Pillay, who both contributed significantly to the growth of Rawang. With Rawang being the first town in Malaya to utilize electricity for tin mining, it was also the first town to have electric street lights, and the Rawang Railway Station was the first railway station in Malaya that had an electricity supply to power the lamps and fans.

When World War II struck, Rawang fell to the Japanese invasion, and the tin mining sector rapidly deteriorated. After the war, the Rawang New Village (one such is now known as Kampung Sungai Terentang) was established by the British in 1951 during the Emergency. By this time, the Chinese population of Rawang also had a sizable percentage of Cantonese in addition to the Hakkas and Hokkiens.

The tin mining industry in Rawang picked up again in the 1950s. Rubber estates were also established around Rawang during this time. In 1953, the first cement factory in Malaya, Rawang Works, was launched by the Associated Pan Malayan Cement company (now Lafarge Malaysia Berhad) who took over much of the land vacated from the tin mining industry which had moved westwards to Batang Berjuntai. It also made Rawang one of the earliest towns in Malaysia to simultaneously produce agricultural, natural resource, and cement output. The Lafarge Cement factory was since bought over by YTL Cement but subsequently closed down in 2020 due to the high cost of production but it still has high value due to the land-bank option for future development

Tin and rubber were major economic outputs of Rawang until the late-1970s, after which oil palm plantations started being established by private companies. Throughout the late-1980s until the 1990s, Rawang's economic output continued to diversify and many light industrial areas opened up during Malaysia's industrialization drive under the Fifth Malaysia Plan (RMK-5). Industrial zones that were set up at Sungai Dua and Rawang Perdana during this period generated jobs which resulted in further population growth and the increase in foreign workers residing in Rawang. The influx of foreign workers has transformed the landscape and composition of the industrial estates and townships.

In 1974, following Kuala Lumpur's separation from Selangor, a re-delineation exercise for that year's general election saw Rawang transferred from Hulu Selangor to Gombak (i.e. Selayang constituency). At the same time, Rawang township (mukim) was transferred to newly-created Gombak District and acted as the administrative center of the district. While northern part of Rawang including Bukit Beruntung, Bukit Sentosa, Serendah and Sungai Choh remained in Hulu Selangor District until now.

Rawang was the capital of Gombak until 1997 when it moved to Batu Caves, and is now a major administrative center for the district of Selayang. Rawang has undergone tremendous growth since the PLUS North-South Highway was opened in the mid-1990s. The population of Rawang stands at 120,447 according to the GeoNames geographical database. The Selayang Municipal Council building is situated at the new Rawang town center that was established in the early-2000s slightly north of the old Rawang town.