Cambodia Population, Main Cities and Geography

By | January 27, 2023

Cambodia: population, cities

Population

According to Countryaah website, Cambodia had around 14.1 million residents in 2010.

Compare

  • Federal Republic of Germany (81.9 million),
  • Austria (8.3 million), the
  • USA (314.2 million),
  • PR China (1.3 billion),
  • India (1.2 billion) and
  • Egypt with approx. 80.5 million residents.

Ethnic composition

90% Khmer, 5% Vietnamese, 1% Chinese and 4% other ethnic groups.

Religious affiliation

95% are Theravadic Buddhists and 5% are other religions.

National language

The official language is Khmer (95%), but French and English are also spoken.

Capital, other cities

The capital of Cambodia is Phnom Penh with a population of around 1.5 million. According to Abbreviation Finder, KHM stands for Cambodia in English. Click to see other meanings of this 3-letter acronym.

Other cities are:

  • Sianoukville with around 210,000 residents
  • Battambang with around 177,000 residents
  • Siem Reap with around 148,000 residents

Compare

New York (8 million) in the USA,

Sao Paulo (> 17 million) in Brazil,

Berlin (3.4 million) in Germany,

London (7.2 million) in England and Great Britain,

Beijing (City 6 million) in China,

Mexico City in Mexico, the most populous city on earth (over 20 million),

Tokyo (11.8 million) in Japan.

Cambodia: geography

Cambodia is located in Southeast Asia on the Gulf of Thailand. Check topmbadirectory for politics, flags, famous people, animals and plants of Cambodia.

 

Area and land use

Cambodia is located in Southeast Asia on the Gulf of Thailand at the mouth of the Mekong Delta. The otherwise quite flat Cambodia, shaped by the Mekong Delta, is surrounded by mountains at its political borders.

The Kardarmon Mountains, which also include the country’s highest mountain, Phum Aoral, are located in the west on the border with Thailand.

In the northwest on the border with Laos the Dankret Mountains rise up. The elephant mountains are in the southwest.

Cambodia covers a total area of 181,040 km².

Thereof:

  • National parksAround 43,000 km ² are designated as national parks, which corresponds to around 24% of the country.
  • RainforestAround 25% of the country is rainforest, which has been extremely decimated in recent years and is still being felled.

National borders

Cambodia has a land border with the following countries:

Laos with a length of around 541 km

Thailand with a length of around 803 km

Vietnam with a length of around 1,230 km.

Coastline

Cambodia has a sea coast with a length of around 445 km.

Longitude and latitude

Cambodia extends over the following geographical latitude (abbreviation Δφ) and geographical longitude (abbreviation Δλ):

Δφ = from around 10 ° to 10 ° 30 ‘north Δλ = from around 103 ° to 109 ° east

You can find detailed information on this subject under Longitude and Latitude.

Legal time

For Cambodia, the following value applies to Central European Time (CET), i.e. the time without summer time. A minus sign means that it is earlier there, a plus sign that it is later than CET:

Δt (CET) = + 6 h

Further and detailed explanations of the time can be found under Time zones, time.

The highest point of the sun in Phnom Penh

Phnom Penh is located at a north latitude of around φ = 11.5 ° (11 ° 30 ‘) and thus in the middle of the tropics.

If the declination δ of the sun has the value of 11 ° 30 ‘N, and so the image point of the sun is exactly above the city, the sun is perpendicular there. This happens exactly twice a year, roughly 45 days after March 21st and 45 days before September 21st.

Attention

If the image point of the sun and thus the declination δ is north of the latitude of Phnom Penh, the sun is not in the south at noon, as in our latitudes, but in the north. In this case, the sun moves from east to north to west, where, like us, it sets.

mountains

Phnum Aoral

The highest mountain in the country is the Phnum Aoral with a height of 1,810 m.

Other high mountains are:

  • Phnom Krapang with a height of 1,711 m
  • Phnom Sam Koh with a height of 1,717 m
  • Phom Khang Trapeang with a height of 1,213 m

Rivers

Mekong

The longest river in the country is the Mekong, which is around 4,500 km long and flows through Cambodia over a distance of around 500 km.

The Mekong divides at Phnom Penh into the upper river, the Mekong, and the lower river, the Tonle Bassac.

The Tonle Sap

The Tonle Sap is around 100 km long and is a kind of canal that connects the Tonle Lake with the Mekong River and is an important traffic artery for the country.

Other rivers in the country are:

  • Tonle Srepo
  • Tonle Kong

Lakes

The country includes numerous smaller and larger lakes.

Tonle Sap

The largest lake in the country is the Tonle Sap, in English “Big Lake”, which covers an area of around 3,000 km² in the dry season and an area of around 10,500 km² in the rainy season. During the dry season, this very fish-rich lake has a depth of 2 to 3 m, which deepens to up to 14 m during the rainy season. During the rainy season, the entire lake-river area even covers an area of approx. 25,000 km².

It is also the largest lake in Southeast Asia. The Tonle Sap River flows into the Mekong. During the dry season, the river reverses its direction of flow and then supplies the Mekong with water from the lake that had been supplied to it by the Mekung, which was rich in water during the rainy season.

At the time of the change of flow direction, festivals take place in the region, for example the “Water Festival” near Phnom Penh, at which numerous teams from Cambodia hold rowing boat races.

Islands

Kaôh Kŏng

The largest island off Cambodia on the border with Thailand is Kaôh Kŏng (Koh Kong), where there is also a border crossing to Thailand.

Koh Rong

Koh Rong, off the coast of the city of Sihanoukville, which has a population of around 236,000, is the country’s second largest island.

Koh Tonsay

Koh Tonsay (Rabbit Island) is about 4.5 kilometers southwest of the town of Kep, which has around 36,000 residents, on the border with Vietnam. The island covers an area of only approx. 2 km² and is very popular with tourists because of its sandy beaches.

Other islands in the Gulf of Thailand:

  • Koh Rong Samloem
  • Koh Thmei

Gulf of Thailand

With the Gulf of Thailand, Cambodia has a coastline of around 445 km.

The Gulf of Thailand – formerly known as the Gulf of Siam – is part of the South China Sea and thus a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean. The golf covers an area of around 320,000 km² – with a maximum depth of around 80 m. The Gulf is bordered by Thailand to the west and north, Cambodia and Vietnam to the east and Malaysia to the southwest.

The main arm of the Chao Phraya and the narrower Tha Chin (near Samut Sakhon – about 35 km west of Bangkok) and the Mae Klong flow into the gulf in the Bay of Bangkok. Another tributary to the gulf is the Tapi River in Bandon Bay near Surat Thani.

The Gulf has a relatively low salt content of 3.05 to 3.25%.

Cambodia Population