The
population of Cambodia is 13,124,764 (2003 estimate). Population growth per year
is estimated at 1.8 percent, one of the highest rates in Asia. The rate of
infant mortality is also high. The population density is 72 persons per sq km
(188 per sq mi), with the densest concentrations on the heavily cultivated
central plain. The mountainous regions of the country, where malaria is
widespread, are thinly populated, as are the poorly watered northern provinces.
During the late 1970s, under the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge, all of
Cambodia’s towns were depopulated, and residents were forcibly relocated to
rural areas. A process of reurbanization began in the 1980s.Cambodia’s capital,
Phnom Penh, is situated at the junction of the Mekong and Tônlé Sab rivers.
Other major cities are Battambang, Kampong Cham Kampot, and Cambodia’s only
deep-water port, Kâmpóng Saôm, located on the Gulf of Thailand.
Ethnic Cambodians, or Khmer, constitute 90 percent of the population. About 5 percent
of the country’s inhabitants are of Vietnamese origin, and 1 percent are
Chinese. Seminomadic tribal groups concentrated in the mountainous northeast
make up the remaining 4 percent of the population.Cambodia’s official language
is Khmer, or Cambodian, which belongs to the Mon-Khmer family of languages (see
Austro-Asiatic Languages). French was formerly an important secondary language
in the country, but English gained considerable ground in the 1990s. Other
languages spoken include Vietnamese and an assortment of South Chinese dialects.
At least 85 percent of Cambodia’s inhabitants adhere to Theravada Buddhism, which
is the dominant religion in most Southeast Asian nations. Buddhism originated in
India in the 6th century bc and arrived in Cambodia during the first centuries
ad. At first Mahayana Buddhism predominated, but after the 14th century
Theravada gradually replaced the older school as the primary religion.
Nevertheless, a minority of modern Cambodians still practices Mahayana Buddhism.
Other religions practiced in Cambodia include Roman Catholicism and Islam.
An estimated 70 percent of Cambodia’s adult population is
literate. Public education is free and compulsory for the first 6 years. Primary
school attendance increased rapidly in the 1990s, and by 1999–2000 virtually all
children were enrolled, as well as many older people who were unable to attend
school in earlier years. Secondary education was more limited, with only 17
percent of eligible children enrolled. Seven institutions of higher learning,
including the University of Phnom Penh, the University of Fine Arts, and the
University of Agricultural Sciences, operate in the country. Only 2.7 percent of
Cambodians of usual university age were enrolled in these schools in 1999–2000.
Perennially handicapped by insufficient funding, Cambodia’s
educational system was devastated in the late 1970s when the Khmer Rouge regime
closed schools and executed thousands of teachers. The regime viewed
intellectuals, among others, as potential sources of opposition to its attempt
to create an ideal socialist, agrarian society. In the 1980s thousands more
teachers fled the country or sought better-paying work. Ever since then, efforts
to revive the education system have been hampered by a shortage of funds and
trained personnel
Eighty
percent of Cambodia’s people live in rural areas, where their principal
occupation is subsistence farming on family-operated holdings. In rural
Cambodia, most houses are built of palm leaf and bamboo and are often raised on
stilts for protection from annual floods. A rural village (phum) consists of a
group of houses, usually clustered around a Buddhist monastery, or wat.In the
cities, life for the poor resembles life in the countryside, but sanitary
conditions are worse and violent crime is much more frequent. Wealthy and
middle-class Cambodians value material possessions, which reflect their social
standing. In the 1990s hundreds of extravagant villas were built for members of
the political and commercial elite.Most rural Cambodians wear simple clothing
and have few material possessions. Women usually dress modestly in cotton shirts
and ankle-length skirts, reserving their multicolored, locally woven silks for
religious festivals. A cotton garment called a krama is worn by both men and
women as a head covering, as a loincloth (for bathing), and as a carrying bag.
Urban Cambodians usually wear Western-style clothing. Rice and fish form the
basis of the Cambodian diet.Cambodian families are large, but infant mortality,
especially from intestinal disorders, remains high. Women head a large
proportion of family units because many men were killed in the warfare of the
1970s and 1980s. In most families, females manage the household economy. Women
also constitute the majority of vendors at local markets. Traditionally, boys
became monks for a few months during their adolescence, but this practice is
fading.
The
population of Cambodia is 13,124,764 (2003 estimate). Population growth per year
is estimated at 1.8 percent, one of the highest rates in Asia. The rate of
infant mortality is also high. The population density is 72 persons per sq km
(188 per sq mi), with the densest concentrations on the heavily cultivated
central plain. The mountainous regions of the country, where malaria is
widespread, are thinly populated, as are the poorly watered northern provinces.
During the late 1970s, under the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge, all of
Cambodia’s towns were depopulated, and residents were forcibly relocated to
rural areas. A process of reurbanization began in the 1980s.Cambodia’s capital,
Phnom Penh, is situated at the junction of the Mekong and Tônlé Sab rivers.
Other major cities are Battambang, Kampong Cham Kampot, and Cambodia’s only
deep-water port, Kâmpóng Saôm, located on the Gulf of Thailand.
Ethnic Cambodians, or Khmer, constitute 90 percent of the population. About 5 percent
of the country’s inhabitants are of Vietnamese origin, and 1 percent are
Chinese. Seminomadic tribal groups concentrated in the mountainous northeast
make up the remaining 4 percent of the population.Cambodia’s official language
is Khmer, or Cambodian, which belongs to the Mon-Khmer family of languages (see
Austro-Asiatic Languages). French was formerly an important secondary language
in the country, but English gained considerable ground in the 1990s. Other
languages spoken include Vietnamese and an assortment of South Chinese dialects.
At least 85 percent of Cambodia’s inhabitants adhere to Theravada Buddhism, which
is the dominant religion in most Southeast Asian nations. Buddhism originated in
India in the 6th century bc and arrived in Cambodia during the first centuries
ad. At first Mahayana Buddhism predominated, but after the 14th century
Theravada gradually replaced the older school as the primary religion.
Nevertheless, a minority of modern Cambodians still practices Mahayana Buddhism.
Other religions practiced in Cambodia include Roman Catholicism and Islam.
