Cambodia overview
Cambodia is a country in South-Eastern Asia, one of the 11 entries this site files under that subregion. Treaties and official documents call it Kingdom of Cambodia. Government sits in Phnom Penh.
The population is about 17.6 million, placing it 73rd of 250 by population — between the Netherlands above it and Zimbabwe below. Within South-Eastern Asia alone it is the 8th largest of 11 and the 7th most populous.
It covers 181,035 km², which ranks it 91st of the 250 countries and territories in this dataset — just behind Syria and just ahead of Uruguay. That makes it a fraction smaller than Belarus.
Cambodia and its neighbours, side by side
Cambodia has 3 land neighbours, and together they hold 180,425,516 people — about 10 times Cambodia's own population. Sharing a frontier with that much weight on the other side shapes trade, migration and language in ways the map alone does not show.
| Neighbour | Population | Area (km²) | vs Cambodia by area |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thailand | 71,668,011 | 513,120 | 2.8× larger |
| Vietnam | 100,987,686 | 331,212 | 1.8× larger |
| Laoslandlocked | 7,769,819 | 236,800 | 1.3× larger |
By area the largest neighbour is Thailand and the smallest is Laos; by population Vietnam is the heaviest presence on the border. Taken together the neighbours hold more people than Cambodia does, which is the usual situation for a country with several borders and rarely a comfortable one.
Cambodia at a glance
- Capital
- Phnom Penh
- Population
- 17,638,801
- Area
- 181,035 km²
- Region
- South-Eastern Asia, Asia
- Languages
- Khmer
- Currency
- Cambodian riel (KHR), United States dollar (USD)
- Calling code
- +855
- Internet TLD
- .kh
- People per km²
- 97
The lie of the land
The coordinates the dataset gives are 13.0° N, 105.0° E, which puts it in the northern hemisphere, roughly 1,447 km from the equator, in what geographers would call tropical latitudes.
Sudan, Chad and Yemen sit at almost exactly the same latitude on other parts of the globe.
It borders 3 neighbours: Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. The largest of them by area is Thailand, while the most populous is Vietnam. Together those neighbours hold about 180.4 million people.
Unlike its landlocked neighbours it reaches the sea directly, while also sharing land frontiers.
Where Cambodia is on the map
The map below is centred on Cambodia at roughly 13.00°, 105.00°. Pan and zoom to see how it sits against its surroundings — the shape of a country's borders explains a surprising amount about its history.
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
Who lives in Cambodia
Spread across 181,035 km², that works out at about 97 people per square kilometre, which makes it more crowded than the typical entry on this list. For comparison, the median entry on this list sits near 90 per square kilometre.
Officially it is monolingual: Khmer. No other entry in this dataset lists Khmer, so on this list it stands alone.
Someone from Cambodia is a Cambodian.
Against Asia as a whole it is the 26th most populous of 50 entries, and it accounts for 2.5% of everyone living in South-Eastern Asia.
Money and language in Cambodia
Cambodia does not have the United States dollar to itself. It is one of 20 entries on this site that use the currency, whose code is USD, and the others include listed below. A shared currency usually points at something real — a monetary union, a currency board, a former colonial administration, or a small economy pegging itself to a large neighbour's money — and it means a price quoted in USD travels further than you might expect.
Khmer is listed for Cambodia and for no other entry on this site. A language confined to one country is unusual, and it is normally a sign of long isolation or of deliberate revival.
Also uses the United States dollar (USD):
Cambodia within South-Eastern Asia
Zoom in from the world to South-Eastern Asia and Cambodia sits 7th of 11 by population and 8th by area. Its immediate company in that ordering is Malaysia just above and Laos just below, which is a more honest comparison set than a global league table.
Indonesia is the largest of the group by population, and every entry in South-Eastern Asia has its own page here if you want to work through the whole neighbourhood rather than one country at a time.
How big is Cambodia, really?
Put next to every other entry on this site, Cambodia ranks 91st of 250 by area and 73rd by population. That works out at 0.12% of the combined land area of all 250 entries and 0.22% of their combined population. Those denominators matter: this list includes territories and dependencies as well as UN member states, so a rank here is not the same as a rank among sovereign countries.
For a sense of scale, the entries immediately either side of Cambodia in the size ordering are Syria at 185,180 km² and Uruguay at 181,034 km², against Cambodia's 181,035 km². If you can already picture one of those, you can picture this one.
Density tells a different story from either raw figure. Cambodia averages 97 people per square kilometre of total area, which makes it middling in density — 117th of the 248 entries that have both a population and a measured area. Total area includes inland water, so the true figure for habitable land is higher than this.
Money, codes and practical details
More than one currency circulates: Cambodian riel (KHR) and United States dollar (USD). It is issued for Cambodia alone.
Its internet country code is .kh. Calls from overseas start with +855. Standard country codes: kh and KHM.
Phnom Penh is the city to remember for this country.
It holds a seat at the United Nations, one of 193 entries here that do. The other 57 entries are territories, dependencies or observers, which is why totals on this site run to 250 rather than the familiar 195.
Cambodia codes and abbreviations
Every country carries a small set of codes that quietly run the practical world — phone networks, web addresses, passports, luggage tags and dropdown menus. Here are Cambodia's, and what each one is actually for.
- Calling code+855
- Dial +855 after your international access code to reach a number in Cambodia.
- Internet domain.kh
- .kh is the country-code top-level domain, so a web address ending in it is registered to Cambodia.
- ISO two-letter codekh
- Used on vehicle plates, in currency pairs and in almost every dropdown list of countries.
- ISO three-letter codeKHM
- The form you will see on passports, at airports and in sports scoreboards.
- DemonymCambodian
- The correct word for a person from Cambodia, and for the adjective form.
Fun facts about Cambodia
- Its full official name is Kingdom of Cambodia.
- It lies about 1,447 km from the equator, in tropical latitudes.
- People from Cambodia are known as Cambodians.
- Websites based there use the .kh domain.
- The Cambodian riel is used here and nowhere else on this list.
- Population density works out at roughly 97 people per square kilometre.
Cambodia — frequently asked questions
- What is the capital of Cambodia?
- The capital of Cambodia is Phnom Penh.
- What currency does Cambodia use?
- Cambodia uses the Cambodian riel, written ៛ (currency code KHR). No other entry in this dataset uses it.
- What language is spoken in Cambodia?
- The official language of Cambodia is Khmer. No other entry on this list gives it official status.
- Where is Cambodia located?
- Cambodia is in South-Eastern Asia, part of Asia. Its reference coordinates are 13.0° north and 105.0° east, roughly 1,447 km from the equator in tropical latitudes.
- What is the population of Cambodia?
- Cambodia has a population of about 17.6 million, which makes it the 73rd most populous of the 250 countries and territories listed on this site. The Netherlands sits just above it and Zimbabwe just below.
- How big is Cambodia?
- Cambodia covers 181,035 km², ranking 91st of 250 by land area. That makes it a fraction smaller than Belarus.
- Which countries border Cambodia?
- Cambodia borders 3 countries: Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Thailand is the largest of them by area.
- Is Cambodia a country?
- Yes. Cambodia is a sovereign state and one of the 193 UN members listed on this site.
