Places

Cambodia

Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in mainland Southeast Asia. It is largely a land of plains and great rivers, on old overland and river trade routes that link China with India and Southeast Asia.[1] Thailand borders it to the west and northwest, Laos to the northeast and Vietnam to the east and southeast, and its southwest coast faces the Gulf of Thailand.[1] The Mekong crosses the country from north to south, and each rainy season its floodwater backs up into the Tonle Sap lake at the country's center.[1] The capital is Phnom Penh.[1]

Tap a province to see its name

25 provinces on the map · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Boundaries: geoBoundaries, ODbL

Khmer, an Austroasiatic language written in its own script, is the official language.[2][3] Theravada Buddhism is the state religion and the faith of about 97 percent of the people.[3][4] The 2019 census counted 15,288,489 people.[5]

Cambodia's civilization runs from the early kingdoms of Funan and Chenla through the Angkor period of the 9th to 15th centuries. In that period the Khmer Empire held lands in present-day Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, and built Angkor Wat and the Bayon.[1] In 1863 a treaty gave France control of Cambodia's foreign affairs, and the 1954 Geneva Conference recognized the government of Norodom Sihanouk as the only legitimate authority in the country.[6][7] Between 1975 and 1979 the Khmer Rouge ruled the country as Democratic Kampuchea, and at least 1.5 million Cambodians were killed or died.[1] The constitution of 1993 made Cambodia a constitutional monarchy, with a King, a Prime Minister, a two-chamber parliament and courts.[3][8]

Cambodian Americans, most of whom came as refugees after 1975, have their largest communities in Long Beach in California and Lowell in Massachusetts.[9][10]

Name

Main pages: Khmer Empire, Khmer language

The country's names over time include Preahreacheanachakr Kampuchea and Roat Kampuchea, the Royaume de Cambodge, the Khmer Republic, Democratic Kampuchea, the People's Republic of Kampuchea and the State of Cambodia.[11] The older form goes back to Angkor: Jayavarman II appears to have founded what came to be called Kambuja-desa, a kingdom that came to control a range of smaller states.[11] The constitution of 1976 named the country Democratic Kampuchea,[7] and from 1979 to 1989 the Vietnam-backed government called it the People's Republic of Kampuchea.[1]

Land and nature

Main pages: Climate of Cambodia, Protected areas of Cambodia, Mekong, Tonle Sap

Cambodia is a low central plain around the Tonle Sap lake and the Mekong, ringed by uplands and low mountains.[1] A sandstone escarpment along the northern border marks the southern edge of the Dangrek Mountains. In the southwest the Cardamom Mountains and the Elephant Mountains cover much of the land between the lake and the sea, and Phnom Aural rises there to 1,813 meters (5,949 feet), the country's highest peak.[1]

The climate is tropical and shaped by the monsoon. The dry season runs from November to April and the rainy season from May to October.[12] In the rains the Mekong backs up into the Tonle Sap, and the lake grows from about 3,100 square kilometers (1,200 square miles) to more than 7,800 square kilometers (3,000 square miles). Britannica ranks it among the world's richest sources of freshwater fish.[1]

The Ministry of Environment manages the national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and other protected areas under a royal decree of 1993 and the Protected Area Law of 2008.[13][14] After a sub-decree of 2016 they numbered 41 areas covering 5,874,503 hectares.[15] Cambodia has few known mineral resources. There are limestone and phosphate deposits in Kampot province, and precious stones are mined in Battambang province.[16]

Cambodia is divided into provinces, and its capital, Phnom Penh, is counted alongside them at the same level.[5] Each province is divided into districts and cities, and these into communes and villages, the levels at which the 2019 census was counted.[5]

25 provinces

Cities, towns and other settlements

Natural features

Lakes and rivers
Mountains and ranges
Islands

People

Main pages: Khmer language, Khmer script, Buddhism in Cambodia, Islam in Cambodia, Cham people, Indigenous peoples of Cambodia, Vietnamese Cambodians, Chinese Cambodians

The 2019 census counted 15,288,489 people, up from 13,395,682 in 2008. Phnom Penh was the most populous province, with 2,129,371 people, or 13.9 percent of the total.[5] The capital is one of a handful of urban centers in a largely rural country.[1]

Khmer is the official language, written in the Khmer script.[3][17] Theravada Buddhism is the faith of about 97 percent of the people.[4] Islam is the religion of the Cham and of the Malay community, about 2 percent of Cambodians in 2019.[4][18] The Cham descend from the people of Champa, a former kingdom on the coast of central Vietnam, and their language belongs to the Austronesian family.[19]

The Indigenous peoples of Cambodia, also called the Khmer Loeu, live mostly in the northeast and north, and a national report counts 22 groups.[20][21] Vietnamese Cambodians are the largest minority, and many of them cannot prove their legal status.[22] Chinese Cambodians, often called Sino-Khmer, trace their community to centuries of trade and settlement.[23]

History

Main pages: History of Cambodia, French protectorate of Cambodia, Khmer Republic, People's Republic of Kampuchea

The Hindu-Buddhist kingdoms of Funan and Chenla, from the 1st to the 8th century, were followed by the Angkor period of the 9th to 15th centuries.[1] The Khmer Empire was at its height in the 12th century, when Angkor Wat, the Bayon and the capital of Angkor Thom were built.[1] In the 16th century the capital was Longvek, which the Tai of Ayutthaya sacked in the 1590s.[6]

In 1863 King Norodom signed a treaty that gave France control of Cambodia's foreign affairs, and in 1897 the French representative in Phnom Penh took executive power.[6] Norodom Sihanouk led the country's politics from 1955 until March 1970, when the National Assembly voted to remove him as head of state and General Lon Nol took control.[7]

Khmer Rouge forces entered Phnom Penh in April 1975 and emptied every city and town.[7] In December 1978 a Vietnamese army entered Cambodia and within two weeks installed the People's Republic of Kampuchea.[24] The Paris Agreements of October 23, 1991 set up a United Nations transitional authority. Elections followed in May 1993, and the constitution of September 24, 1993 made Cambodia a constitutional monarchy, with Sihanouk as king.[25]

Government

Main pages: Government of Cambodia, Norodom Sihamoni, Khmer monarchs

Under the constitution of 1993 Cambodia is a constitutional monarchy, with a King, a Prime Minister, a two-chamber parliament and courts.[3][8] The King is head of state for life; he reigns but does not govern, and he stands as a symbol of the nation's unity.[3] The King is Norodom Sihamoni, and the Prime Minister is Hun Manet.[1]

The Royal Government, the Council of Ministers, is led by the Prime Minister and needs a vote of confidence in the National Assembly.[8] The National Assembly is elected for five years by direct, secret, universal ballot.[3] It has 125 seats and the Senate 62.[1] The country is divided into the capital, provinces, municipalities, districts and communes, each governed under an organic law.[8] The national motto is "Nation, Religion, King".[3]

Economy

Main pages: Economy of Cambodia, Cambodian riel, Kampot pepper

The economy rests on factory exports, tourism, construction and rice farming.[26][27] The World Bank counts Cambodia among the fastest-growing economies in the world in the twenty years before the COVID-19 pandemic. Real growth averaged 8.2 percent a year from 2000 to 2019, and the country reached lower-middle-income status in 2015.[26]

The garment, travel goods and footwear industry is the largest source of formal jobs. It employed more than one million people in 2025, more than 75 percent of them women.[26] Tourism, centered on the Angkor Archaeological Park near Siem Reap, brought about 6.61 million international visitors in 2019.[28] The national currency is the Cambodian riel, issued by the National Bank of Cambodia, and the US dollar circulates widely beside it.[29][30]

Society

Main pages: Education in Cambodia, Khmer names, Khmer wedding ceremony, Khmer funeral rites

Education grew from schools run by Buddhist monks into a public system of twelve grades overseen by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport.[31][32] The first nine years are free in public schools.[31]

Health care facilities and trained medical staff are concentrated in Phnom Penh, while most rural areas are served only by local infirmaries.[33] Tens of thousands of Cambodians were maimed by landmines, and there has been a large international effort to clear the mines and to fit artificial limbs.[33] Millions of landmines left from the years of war remain in the fields and limit the land available for farming.[16] The Cambodian Mine Action Centre (មជ្ឈមណ្ឌលសកម្មភាពកំចាត់មីនកម្ពុជា) surveys and clears land of mines and unexploded ordnance, and teaches people about the risks.[34]

Culture

Main pages: Cambodian classical dance, Cambodian cuisine, Khmer literature, Cinema of Cambodia, National symbols of Cambodia, Influences on Khmer civilization

Cambodian classical dance, the court dance known for its hand gestures and elaborate costumes, has been bound to the Khmer court for more than a thousand years.[35] Khmer literature runs from stone inscriptions and verse epics to modern novels and poetry.[36] Cambodian cuisine rests on rice and fish, flavored with the fermented fish paste prahok and the herb paste kroeung.[37][38] Cambodian film flourished from 1960 to 1975, nearly ended under the Khmer Rouge and was rebuilt from the 1980s.[39][40]

The main traditional crafts are weaving, jewelry making, silver and gold work and carving in wood and stone.[41] Phnom Penh has several daily newspapers, in print or online, one of them in English, and there are more than a dozen major radio stations. Britannica writes that television and radio are generally controlled by the ruling Cambodian People's Party.[41] The national symbols include the flag, the anthem Nokor Reach (នគររាជ) and the motto "Nation, Religion, King".[3][42]

Cambodians abroad

Main pages: Cambodian Americans, Khao I Dang

Khao I Dang, a refugee camp in Thailand near the Cambodian border, took in Cambodian refugees from 1979 into the early 1990s. It was the main route for refugees trying to leave for other countries.[43][44] More than 300,000 refugees returned from Thailand in 1992 and 1993.[24]

Cambodian Americans are people in the United States whose own or family origins lie in Cambodia. Most arrived as refugees in the years after the Khmer Rouge took power in 1975.[45][9] The largest communities are in Long Beach, California, and Lowell, Massachusetts.[9][10]

More ways in

Heritage sitesTemples, memorials and historic places.106 sites
Wats and templesKhmer Buddhist temples, their communities and visiting details.1040 temples
A countryside of small places joined by gold threads, like a map to walk
ExplorerA map of the KhmerConnection collection. It follows the connections between Khmer communities, culture and stories.

References 45
  1. ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cambodia (updated October 29, 2026)
  2. ↑ Ethnologue, Khmer (undated)
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 International Commission of Jurists, The Constitution of the Kingdom of Cambodia (1993; English text, undated)
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 National Institute of Statistics, Ministry of Planning, General Population Census of the Kingdom of Cambodia 2019, final results (undated)
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 National Institute of Statistics, Provisional Population Census 2019 (2019)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cambodia: Tai and Vietnamese hegemony, French rule, World War II and its aftermath (updated October 26, 2026)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cambodia: Independence, Civil war, Democratic Kampuchea (updated October 26, 2026)
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 8.3 Constitute Project, Cambodia's Constitution of 1993 with amendments through 2008 (undated)
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Carl L. Bankston, Cambodian Americans, EBSCO Research Starters (2022)
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Voice of America, Suzanne Presto, Cambodian community in Lowell, Massachusetts (page dated October 31, 2009)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cambodia: History (updated October 29, 2026)
  12. ↑ Water Environment Partnership in Asia, State of water: Cambodia, 1.3 Weather (undated)
  13. ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Types of state protected areas (August 26, 2020)
  14. ↑ Kingdom of Cambodia, Protected Area Law (January 2008), copy held by the Food and Agriculture Organization's FAOLEX database
  15. ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Establishment of 18 natural protected areas under the management of Ministry of Environment (undated)
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cambodia: Demographic trends, Resources and power (updated October 29, 2026)
  17. ↑ Unicode Consortium, The Unicode Standard, version 18.0, section 16.4 Khmer (2026)
  18. ↑ The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 23:3, Philipp Bruckmayr, The Cham Muslims of Cambodia: From Forgotten Minority to Focal Point of Islamic Internationalism (2006)
  19. ↑ Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, Michael Vickery, Champa Revised, ARI Working Paper No. 37 (March 2005)
  20. ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Ethnic minorities and indigenous people (March 7, 2023)
  21. ↑ Ministry of Planning and Ministry of Rural Development, National Report on Demographic and Socio-economic Situation of Indigenous Peoples in Cambodia: Preface and Report Summary, English unofficial translation (2021)
  22. ↑ Statelessness and Citizenship Review, Christoph Sperfeldt, Legal identity and minority statelessness in Cambodia: recent developments (volume 3, number 2, 2021)
  23. ↑ Cambodianess, Chinese Cambodians: A Bridge Between Worlds (November 29, 2025)
  24. ↑ 24.0 24.1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cambodia: Vietnamese intervention, The 1990s, Cambodia since 2000 (updated October 26, 2026)
  25. ↑ United Nations Peacekeeping, United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC): Background (undated)
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 World Bank, Cambodia overview (updated October 2026)
  27. ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Agriculture and fishing (November 9, 2020)
  28. ↑ Open Development Cambodia, Tourism (February 2, 2023)
  29. ↑ International Monetary Fund, Cambodia's Financial Sector Development and Policies (December 2007)
  30. ↑ International Monetary Fund, Nombulelo Duma, Dollarization in Cambodia: Causes and Policy Implications (March 2011)
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 Open Development Cambodia, Primary school (undated)
  32. ↑ Education Policy Analysis Archives, Thomas Clayton, Restriction or resistance? French colonial educational development in Cambodia (volume 3, number 19, December 1, 1995)
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cambodia: Justice, Health and welfare (updated October 29, 2026)
  34. ↑ Cambodian Mine Action Centre, Who We Are (undated)
  35. ↑ UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, Royal ballet of Cambodia (undated)
  36. ↑ Northern Illinois University SEAsite, Judy Ledgerwood, Cambodian Literature (undated)
  37. ↑ Journal of Ethnic Foods, Tradition and fermentation science of prohok, an ethnic fermented fish product of Cambodia (May 6, 2020)
  38. ↑ Cultural Survival Quarterly, Kayla Starr, Key to Khmer Cuisine (June 19, 2009)
  39. ↑ Arsenal, Institute for Film and Video Art, Berlinale Forum 2012 sheet on Le sommeil d'or (Golden Slumbers) (2012)
  40. ↑ BBC News, Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh's search for catharsis (February 3, 2014)
  41. ↑ 41.0 41.1 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cambodia: Cultural life, Media and broadcasting (updated October 29, 2026)
  42. ↑ The Cambodia Daily, Drought-hit farmers axing national tree (May 5, 2005)
  43. ↑ Cambridge University Press, Bertrand Taithe, The Cradle of the New Humanitarian System? International Work and European Volunteers at the Cambodian Border Camps, 1979–1993, Contemporary European History 25(2) (May 2016)
  44. ↑ Royal College of Art, Magali An Berthon, Silk and Post-Conflict Cambodia: Embodied Practices and Global and Local Dynamics of Heritage and Knowledge Transference (1991-2018) (PhD thesis, October 2021)
  45. ↑ Pew Research Center, Facts about Cambodians in the U.S. (May 1, 2025)
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This page was last edited on 3 November 2026, at 05:16.