Geography and Demography

Area : 181 035 Km².
Cultivated : 17%, Grazing : 3%. Forest : Following intensive deforestation in these last years, only 40% of the country is covered by forest.
Population : 11 426 000 inhabitants (density : 58 hab./km². Low population density, five times inferior to that of Vietnam). Population will reach 19.2 million in 2020.
Density : 58,1 hab./km²
From war (1970-1975), genocide (1975-1979), then a demographic explosion (since 1980), the return of the Vietnamese after 1979 and the return of the refugees from the camps in Thailang from 1992.
Annual demographic growth : 2.5% (= 262 072)
Fertility index: 4.6
0-14 yrs old: 41.98%
15-64 yrs old: 55.05%
Infant mortality rate : 102‰
Life expectancy: 54 yrs
Alphabetisation rate : 38 %
Higher education counts less than 10 000 students.
300 000 students in secondary school and 2 million in primary schools.
70% of the population does not have access to water and 82% to sanitary installations.
52% of children under 5 suffer from malnutrition.
There were 300,000 Khmer refugees in the camps in Thailand, and under Pol Pot at least 1,700,000 Cambodians perished, equal to 20% of the population of 7,900,000 inhabitants in 1975. The population of Phnom Penh was inferior to 30,000 hab. when the Vietnamese troops entered on 7/1/79. With a growth rate of 2.5% in 15 or so years, the demographic cost of the genocide has been partly recovered.
Capital : Phnom-Penh (1 000 000 hab.).
Language : Khmer
Currency : riel.

Economy and politics

Inflation had lowered from 12.6% in 1998 to 5%.
External aid corresponds to 40% of the expenditure of the State entailing a heavy debt of 2 billion dollars. The two largest sources of revenue are tourism (6% of the GDP in 1995), and foreign investment. In this sector: investors show themselves reluctant due to political instability, the lack of commercial infrastructure, the lack of land ownership regulations, little respect for human rights and the lack of transparency and rigour in the accounts of the nation.

Agriculture and fishing
51% of the GDP.
Rice occupies 70% of cultivatable land, an exportation of 37 million tonnes in 1996. Livestock rearing is little developed.
Rubber from rubber trees; river fishing important (90% fresh water).
1996: October: Cambodia exported 3 million dollars of clothes to Great Britain fabricated by 10,000 workers payed between 20 and 100 dollars a month.
Wood: in 1999: receipts for 7.8 million dollars coming from the exploitation of wood.

Mines and Industry
14% of the GDP (services :35%).

Politics
Constitution of 24 September 1993 : Kingdom. Constitutional monarchy. Parlimentary regime.
Head of State: King Norodom Sihanouk Varman.
Two Prime Ministers, heads of Government, Hun Sen : Prime minister since the 5th January 1985 [from the Pradeachon or Cambodian People's Party (CPP)] ; Ung Huot (second co-Prime minister) : since 7/8/97.

GNP/Hab.
US $300. Very poor country after 25 years of anarchy and the bloody Khmer Rouge regime, classed among the 29 least developed countries in the world.
Army
The Army of Kampuchea is a 123,917 strong army, members duly registered and identified.
The amount of the budget allocated to defense is 5.7% of the GDP.

Religions

Buddhists (95% of the population), Muslims in Cambodia make up a minority of around 250,000 souls equal to around 2.5% of the total population of the country. Their communities consist essentially of the Cham. Sihanouk calls them the "Khmers-islam", but they are not of Khmer ethnicity: they are the descendants of the Campa, kingdom situated in the centre of current Vietnam, completely destroyed by the Vietnamese in the 15th century. The Khmer Rouge particularly persecuted this community, no doubt more due to its particularism than for religious reasons. More than 100,000 of them were killed. Catholics, traditional religions.
Theravada Buddhism (small vehicle) is the traditional religion of the majority of Khmers; before 1970 there were 60,000 monks in Cambodia.
Before 1975 : there were also 250 000 muslims (Chams).
From 1975 to 1979 : suppression of all forms of religion.
In 1979 : Buddhism and Islam re-established.
In 1990 : recognition of "Christian Khmers" for whom the freedom of religion is granted in the Constitution. Diplomatic relations were established between the Kingdom of Cambodia and the Holy See and the juridical personality for the Catholic Church was recognised by the State.

Catholic Church
The Catholic Church is ultra-minoritary, martyrised during the regime of the Khmer Rouge which saw the death of most of the Cambodian priests and religious brothers and sisters.

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