CAMBODIA: fast facts
Click on the rectangle in the map to give you a closer look at Cambodia.
Read through the information below to get a quick glimpse of Cambodia and its people.
Geography:
- Total Area: Approx.181,035 sq. km (69,900 sq. miles.). This is slightly smaller than the state of Oklahoma.
- Location: Southeast Asia; bordered by Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, and the Gulf of Thailand.
- Population: 13,607,069 note: estimates for this country take into account the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS; this can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality and death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected (July 2005 est.)
- Age Structure:
- 0-14 years: 37.3% (male 2,559,734/female 2,510,235)
- 15-64 years: 59.7% (male 3,887,642/female 4,232,313)
- 65 years and over: 3.1% (male 150,862/female 266,283) (2005 est.)
- Median Age:
- total: 19.91 years
- male: 19.16 years
- female: 20.79 years (2005 est.)
- Birth Rate: 27.08 births/1,000 population (2005 est.)
- Infant Mortality Rate:
- total: 71.48 deaths/1,000 live births
- male: 80.13 deaths/1,000 live births
- female: 62.43 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
- Life Expectancy at Birth:
- total population: 58.92 years
- male: 56.98 years
- female: 60.95 years (2005 est.)
- Capital: Phnom Penh
- Largest Cities: Phnom Penh, Battambang, Kompong Som, Siem Reap, Kompong Cham, Kompong Thom
- Largest Lake: Tonle Sap
- Major Waterway: Mekong River
- Mountain Ranges: Cardamom, Dangrek
- Highest Point: Phnom Aoral, 5,948 feet
- Climate: Tropical, with two seasons, Rainy (May through October) and Dry (October through May). Temperature rarely falls below 80 degrees Farenheit.
- Land and Land Usage: Mostly low, flat plains, with some small mountains in the north and southwest. About three-fourths tropical forest; roughly one-fifth arable land. Bulk of remaining land is composed of sandy and infertile soil.
- Wildlife: Animals found in Cambodia include monkeys, water buffalo, tigers, elephants, leopards, and crocodiles.
Health and Education:
- Infant Mortality Rate:
- total: 71.48 deaths/1,000 live births
- male: 80.13 deaths/1,000 live births
- female: 62.43 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.)
- Life Epectancy at Birth: 57 years
- Literacy: Approximately 67.3% (57% among females, 79.5% among males). (Source: Royal Government of Cambodia Census, 1998).
- Water Access: CARE estimates that only 36% of the population has access to safe drinking water. The Cambodian government's 1998 census estimates 29% overall, with 60.3% of urban households and 23.7% or rural households having access to safe water.
additional content
The Cambodian Flag: The flag contains three horizontal bands of colour. Blue (top), red (double width in the middle), and blue on the bottom. The middle red band contains a white three-towered temple representing Angkor Wat outlined in black; this is the only national flag to incorporate a building in its design.
Government:
Type:
Cambodia is a Constitutional Monarchy. The government is headed by democratically elected Prime Minister; a National Assembly is composed of 120 representatives. The voting age is 18. The reigning monarch is King Norodom Sihamoni, but his duties are mainly ceremonial. The current Prime Minister is Hun Sen. The first democratically elected leader in recent times, Norodom Ranariddh, was overthrown in a coup staged by Hun Sen in July 1997. Hun Sen was subsequently elected Prime Minister in elections in July 1998, but the elections were severely flawed by a climate of violence and intimidation. Recently, the political situation has stabilized, but serious problems of corruption and impunity remain.
Economy:
Primary Occupation: Agriculture
Chief Products: Rice, rubber, wood and wood products, corn, garments, rubies
Monetary Unit: Riel GNP Per Capita, 2002 $1970 US
Culture:
Ethnicity: Khmer (approx. 90%); Chinese (approx. 5%); Vietnamese (approx. 5%); small minorities of hill tribes, Chams, Burmese, and Thai
Religions: Theraveda Buddhism (95%); Islam; Animism; Atheism
Languages: Khmer (95%); some French, Vietnamese, Chinese, and English.
[Sources: The World Fact Book , Cambodia - Beauty and Darkness]