Population

An estimated 85-90 percent of the population lives in rural areas. Ethnically the population consists of about 90 percent Khmer, 5 percent each of Chinese and Vietnamese and small numbers of hill tribes (Chams and Burmese). Khmer is the country's official language. It is spoken by more than 95 percent of the population. French, as a second Ian a is also spoken, mostly by older people. English is more commonly spoken by the younger generation.

Cambodia's last national census was undertaken in i962. At that time the population was 5.7 million. In 1992 the population was estimated to be 9.0 million (52 percent women), giving a national average population, density of 50 persons per km2. Currently, the country has an estimated rate of population growth of between 2.5- 3.0 per-cent per annum (World Bank 1992). By Southeast Asian standards this rate of population increase is high, and contrasts sharply with the rate for Asia as a whole (1.85 percent in 1989/90).

The Cambodian population presents several important features. First, due to the baby' boom after 1979, it is a young population with at least half (50% according to some sources, more according to others) under 18 years of age now. Secondly, the proportion of women in the adult population is high, 56% of those who are 18 years old or more being females. Also as a result of the war, there is a rather high proportion of women-headed household; at least 25% according to UNICEF.

Cambodia's urban population (10-15 percent of the total) is principally located in two centers: Phnom Penh and Battambang. Phnom Penh has an estimated population of 1.0 million and an annual rate of growth of 3.5 percent. Regionally, the distribution of the population is highly skewed towards:

In contrast,. other provinces and in particular Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri in the north-east, which represent between them over 13% of the national territory but are not easily accessible due to the lack of road infrastructure., are very sparsely populated (about 1% of the total population). Thus 80-90% of the population lives on., and derives its income from, roughly 60,000 km2 of the country's lowland, or a third of its total area.

Cambodia and Laos' populations are dwarfed by those of Vietnam and Thailand, and average population densities in the smaller countries are much lower than in Vietnam. Even the very densely populated areas in Cambodia do not have such a concentration of population as can be found in the Red River and Mekong River Deltas in Vietnam.

The average population density of 50 persons per km2, in turn, masks wide differences among provinces ranging form 4 per km2 in Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri to an average of 160 per kM2 in the central provinces, and greater differences among districts,, sometimes within the same province. However, the average population density in Battambang and Banteay Meanchey provinces is lower (45 inhabitants per km2) than the national average and contrasts with 236 per km2 in Kandal province around Phnom Penh and 146 per km2 in Svay Rieng.

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		Year		Total		Male		Female
				Population
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		1962		5.7     	-		-
		1970		6.8		-		-
		1981		6.7		3.1		3.6
		1988		8.1		3.7		4.4
		1989		8.3		3.8		4.5
		1990		8.6		4.0		4.6
		1991		8.8		4.1		4.7
		1992		9.0		4.1		4.9
		1993		9.3		4.3		5.0
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AGE GROUP		BOTH GENDER		MALE			FEMALE
		NUMBER		%	NUMBER		%	NUMBER		%
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Total		9,307,597	100.0	4,494,452	100.0	4,813,145	100.0
0-14		4,374,570	47.0	2,199,664	48.9	2,174,904	45.2
0- 4		1,768,443	19.0	896,600		19.9	87l,843		18.1
5-14		2,606,127	28.0	1,303,064	29.0	1,303,063	27.1
15-64		4,653,799	50.0	2,171,928	48.3	2,481,871	51.6
15-17		465,380		5.0	232,690		5.2	232,690		4.8
18-64		4,l88,419	45.0	l,939,238	43.1	2,249,181	46.7
65 and over	279,228		3.0	122,860		2.7	156,368		3.2
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Table C. Land Area, Population and Density by Province and Region: 1981 and 1993

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PROVINCE 	LAND 		POPUAUON (IN THOUSAND) 		DENSITY(PERSON/Km2)
AND		AREA
KEGION		(IN/Km2)	1981		1993		1981		1993
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CAMBODIA	181,035*	6,682		9,307		37		51

I - Plain	25,069		3,6l3		5,0l8		144		200
Region

Phnom Penh	267		329		691		1,232		2,588
Kandal		3,591		720		893		201		249
Kompong		9,799		1,070		1,417		109		145
Chham
Svay Rieng	2,966		292		442		98		149
Prey Veng	4,883		672		900		138		184
Takeo		3,563		530		675		149		189

II - Tonle Sap	67,668		1,971		2,668		29		39
Region

Kompong Thom	13,8l4		379		498		27		36
Siem Reap/ Odar	15,271		477		589		31		39
Meanchey
Banteay 	91937		- 		414		-		42
Meanchey
Battambang	10,433		719		574		69		55
Pursat		12,692		175		270		14		21
Kompong		5,521		221		323		40		59
Chhnang

III - Coastal	17,237		432		670		25		39
Region

Sihanoukville	868		53		144		61		131
Kampot		5,209		354		482		68		93
Koh Kong	11,160		25		74		2		7

IV - Plateau 	68,06l		666		951		10		14
and Mountain 
Region

Kompong Speu	7,017		340		494		48		70
Preah Vihear	13,788		69		92		5		7
Stung Treng	11,092		39		71		4		6
Ratanak Kiri	10,782		45		67		4		6
Mondul Kiri	14,288		16		23		1		2
Kratie		11,094		157		204		14		18
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Note: * Including 3,000 km2of Tonle Sap Area
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SOCIAL INDICATORS

The social sector picture in Cambodia has improved since 1979, but the country is still much behind its neighbors in some of these aspects. Life expectancy at birth has risen from 31 years in 1979 to 51 in 1992, equaling that of Laos and the average of low-income countries, but still much lower than in Vietnam (64) and Thailand (69). The situation with respect to infants and children under 5 is, however, serious. Mortality rates for both groups (117 and 184 per thousand, respectively) are high compared to other low-income countries, including all three of Cambodia's immediate neighbors.

There are sharp differences among estimates of the adult literacy rate in Cambodia. The Government states, and UNESCO and IFAD agree., that about 709'o of the population is literate. Significant strides have been made in rehabilitating the education system, which was entirely wiped cut between 1975 and 1979. IFAD reports that one in every four Cambodians is now enrolled in some form of schooling, formal or otherwise. The official school enrollment rate in 1992 was 80% overall, although it is much less in the rural areas (as low as 30%) than in Phnom Penh or the provincial centers. The differences in health and sanitary conditions between urban and rural areas are also very great. Only 50% of the rural population has access to health services (80% in urban areas), 33% to safe water (against 65% in the cities) and 8% to adequate sanitation (819'o in urban areas).

ETHNIC COMPOSITION

The ethnic groups that constitute Cambodian society possess a number of economic and demographic commonalities-for example, Chinese merchants lived mainly in urban centers and play middlemen in many economic cycles, but they also preserve differences in their social and cultural institutions. They were concentrated mostly in central and in southeastern Cambodia. The major differences among these groups lie in social organization, language, and religion. The majority of the inhabitants of Cambodia are settled in fairly permanent villages near the major bodies of water in the Tonle Sap Basin- Mekong Lowlands region. The contemporary locations of major Khmer population centers date back to antiquity according to geographer Jacques Nepote. He points out that contemporary Khmer Krom settlements are located in the same areas as the ancient site of Funan, and that the Khmer settlements extending from Phnom Penh in a southeastern direction are located where pre- Angkorian archaeological sites are clustered. The Khmer Loeu live in widely scattered villages that are abandoned when the cultivated land in the vicinity is exhausted.

The permanently settled Khmer and Cham villages usually are located on or -near the banks of a river or other bodies of water. Cham villages usually are made up almost entirely of Cham, but Khmer villages, especially in central and in southeastern Cambodia, typically include sizable Chinese communities. In his study of the coastal Chinese in Kampot Province and in Koh Kong Province, French geographer Roland Pourtier points out that the Chinese dwellings and shops-usually in the same structures are located at the center of the town or village, while the I


THE KHMER HOUSEHOLD and FAMILY STRUCTURE

In the late 1980s, the nuclear family, consisting of a husband and a wife and their unmarried children, probably continued to be the most important kin group within Khmer society. The family is the major unit of both production and consumption. Within this unit are the strongest emotional ties., the assurance of aid in the event of trouble, economic cooperation in labor, sharing of produce and income, and contribution as a unit to ceremonial obligations. A larger grouping, the personal kindred that includes a nuclear family with the children, grandchildren, grandparents, uncles, aunts, first cousins, nephews, and nieces, may be included in the household. The individual Khmer is surrounded by a small inner circle of family and friends who constitute his or her closest associates,, those he would approach first for help. In rural communities, neighbors-who are often also kin-may be important, too, and much of housebuilding and other heavy labor intensive tasks are performed by groups of neighbors. In rural Cambodia, the strongest ties a Khmer may develop-besides those to the nuclear family and to close friends-are those to other members of the local community. A strong feeling of pride-for the village, for the district, and province-usually characterizes Cambodian community life. There is much sharing of religious life through the local Buddhist temple, and there are many cross-cutting kin relations within the community.

Legally, the husband is the head of the Khmer family, but the wife has considerable authority, especially in family economics. The husband is responsible for providing shelter and food for his family; the wife is generally in charge of the family budget, and she serves as the major ethical and religious model for the children, especially the daughters. Ownership of property among the rural Khmer was vested in the nuclear family. Descent and inheritance is bilateral. Legal children might inherit equally from their parents. The division of property was theoretically equal among siblings, but in practice the oldest child might inherit more. Each of the spouses might bring inherited land into the family, and the family might acquire joint land during the married life of the couple. Each spouse was free to dispose of his or her land as he or she chose. A will was usually oral, although a written one was preferred.


OTHERS ETHNIC GROUPS

THE CHAM

The Cham people in Cambodia descend from refugees of the kingdom of Champa, which once ruled much of Vietnam between Gao Ha in the north and Bien Hoa in the south. The Cambodian Cham is divided into two groups, the orthodox and the traditional-based on their religious practices. The orthodox group, which makes up about one-third of the -total number of Cham in the country, were located mainly in the Phnom Penh - Oudong area and in the provinces of Takeo and Kampot. The traditional Cham were scattered throughout the midsection of the country in the provinces of Battambang, Kompong Thom, Kompong Cham, and Pursat. The Cham of both groups typically live in villages inhabited only by other Cham; the villages may be along the shores of water courses, or they may be inland. The inhabitants of the river villages engage in fishing and in growing vegetables. They trade fish to local Khmer for rice. The women in these villages earn money by weaving. The Cham who live inland support themselves by various means, depending on the village. Some villages specialize in metal working; others raise fruit trees or vegetables. The Cham also often serve as butchers of cattle for their Khmer Buddhist neighbors and are, in some areas, regarded as skillful water buffalo and ram breeders.


THE KHMER LOEU

The Khmer Loeu are the non-Khmer highland tribes in Cambodia. The Khmer Loeu are found mainly in the northeastern provinces of Ratanak Kiri, Stung Treng, Mondul Kiri and Kratie. Most Khmer Loeu live in scattered temporary villages that have only a few hundred. inhabitants. These villages usually are governed by a council of local elders or by a village headman. The Khmer Loeu cultivate a wide variety of plants, but the main crop is dry or upland rice grown by the slash-and-burn method. Hunting, fishing, and gathering supplement the cultivated vegetable foods in the Khmer Loeu diet. Houses vary from huge multifamily longhouses to small single-family structures. They may be built close to the ground or on stilts. The major Khmer Loeu groups in Cambodia are the Kuy, Phnong, Stieng, Brao, Pear, jarai, and Rade. All but the last two speak Mon-Khmer languages. In the late 1980s, about 160,000 Kuy lived in the northern Cambodian provinces of Kampong Thum, Preah Vihear, and Stoeng Treng as well as in adjacent Thailand.


THE CHINESE

The Chinese in Cambodia formed the country's largest ethnic minority. Sixty percent of the Chinese were urban dwellers engaged mainly in commerce; the other 40 percent were rural residents working as shopkeepers, as buyers and processors of rice, palm sugar, fruit, and fish., and as moneylenders. In 1963 William Willmott, an expert on overseas Chinese communities, estimated that 90 percent of the Chinese in Cambodia were involved in commerce and that 92 percent of those involved in commerce in Cambodia were Chinese. In rural Cambodia, the Chinese were moneylenders, and they wielded considerable economic power over the ethnic Khmer peasants through usury. The Chinese in Cambodia represented five major linguistic groups, the largest of which was the Teochiu (accounting for about 60 percent), followed by the Cantonese (accounting for about 20 percent), the Hokkien (accounting for about 7 percent), and the Hakka and the Hainanese (each accounting for about 4 percent). Those belonging to certain Chinese linguistic groups in Cambodia tended to gravitate to certain occupations. The Teochiu, who made up about 90 percent of the rural Chinese population, ran village stores, controlled rural credit and rice-marketing facilities, and grew vegetables. In urban areas they were often engaged in such enterprises as the import- export business, the sale of pharmaceuticals, and street peddling. The Cantonese, who were the majority Chinese group before the Teochiu migrations began in the late 1930s, lived mainly in the city. Typically, the Cantonese engaged in transportation and in construction, for the most part as mechanics or carpenters. The Hokkien community was involved in import-export and in banking, and it included some of the country's richest Chinese. The Hainanese started out as pepper growers in Kampot Province, where they continued to dominate that business. Many moved to Phnom Penh, where, in the late 1960s, they reportedly had a virtual monopoly on the hotel and restaurant business. They also often operated tailor shops and haberdasheries. In Phnom Penh, the newly-arrived Hakka were typically folk dentists, sellers of traditional Chinese medicines, and shoemakers.


THE VIETNAMESE

The Vietnamese community is scattered throughout southeastern and central Cambodia. They were concentrated in Phnom Penh, and in Kandal, Prey Veng, and Kompong Cham provinces. No dose cultural or religious ties exist between Cambodia and Vietnam. The Vietnamese fall within the Chinese culture sphere, rather than within the Indian, where the Thai and the Khmer belong. The Vietnamese differ from the Khmer in mode of dress, in kinship organization, and in many other ways - for example the Vietnamese are Mahayana Buddhists while most of the Cambodians are Theravada Buddhists. Although Vietnamese lived in urban centers such as Phnom Penh, a substantial number lived along the lower Mekong and Bassac rivers as well as on the shores of the Tonle Sap, where they engaged in fishing.

LANGUAGES

The majority of Cambodians, even those who are not ethnic Khmer, speak Khmer, the official language of the country. Ethnic Khmer living in Thailand, in Vietnam, and in Laos speak dialects of Khmer that are more or less intelligible to Khmer speakers from Cambodia. Minority languages include Vietnamese, Cham, several dialects of Chinese, and the languages of the various hill tribes. Khmer, in contrast to Vietnamese, Thai, Lao, and Chinese, is nontonal. Native Khmer words may be composed of one or two syllables. Khmer is uninflected, but it has a rich system of affixes, including infixes, for derivation. Generally speaking, Khmer has nouns, verbs, adverbs, and various kinds of words called particles. The normal word order is subject-verb-object. Khmer uses Sanskrit and Pali roots much as English and other West European languages use Latin and Greek roots to derive new, especially scientific, words. Khmer has also' borrowed terms-especially financial, commercial, and cooking terms-from Chinese, French, and English as well. These latter borrowings have been in the realm of material culture, especially the names for items of modern Western technology. The language has symbols for thirty'-three consonants,, twenty- ,four dependent vowels, twelve independent vowels, and several diacritics.


BUDDHISM

Theravada Buddhism is the religion of virtually all of the ethnic Khmer,, who constitute about 90 percent or more of the Cambodian population. Buddhism originated in what are now north India andepal during the sixth century B.G. Theravada Buddhism is a tolerant., non prescriptive religion that does not require belief in a supreme being. Its precepts require that each individual take full responsibility for his own actions and omissions. Buddhism is based on three concepts: dharma (the doctrine of the Buddha, his guide to right actions and belief); karma (the belief that one's life now and in future lives depends upon one's own deeds and misdeeds and that as an individual one is responsible for, and rewarded on the basis of, the sum total of one's acts and omissions in all one's incarnations past and present); and sangha, the ascetic community within which man can improve his karma. The Buddhist salvation is nirvana, a final extinction of one's self. Nirvana may be attained by achieving good karma through earning much merit and avoiding misdeeds. A Buddhist's pilgrimage through existence is a constant attempt to distance himself or herself from the world and finally to achieve complete detachment, or nirvana. The fundamentals of Buddhist doctrine are the Four Noble Truths: suffering exists; craving (or desire) is the cause of suffering; release from suffering c an be achieved by stopping all desire; and enhghtenment-buddhahood-can be attained by following the Noble Eightfold Path (right views, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration), which constitutes a middle way between sensuality and ascetism. Enlightenment consists of knowing these truths. The average layperson cannot hope for nirvana after the end of this life., but can-by complying, as best he or she is able to, with the doctrine's rules of moral conduct-hope to improve his or her karma and thereby better his condition in the next incarnation.