Phnom Penh serves as the capital city for the legal constitutional monarchy in Southeast Asia officially called the Kingdom of Cambodia.

The name Phnom Penh means Penh’s Hill, referring to the hill on which an iconic Buddhist temple stands.

Nicknames for Phnom Penh include Pearl of Asia, The Charming City and Paris of the East reflecting the fine French architecture found in Phnom Penh.

Research website numbeo ranks Phnom Penh in the bottom 2% compared to the 250 cities evaluated on its overall quality of life index at June 2020. Phnom Penh scored poorly on index factors such as purchasing power (weakest 1%), property price to income ratio (highest 4%), health care (lowest 9%), pollution (worst 10%) and safety (23% most dangerous). On the positive side, Phnom Penh rates relatively well on traffic commute time (fastest 30%) and cost of living (least expensive 41%).

Phnom Penh was recognized by the Guinness World Records as the site where the longest hand-woven scarf ever was created. Made entirely from cotton and in one-piece traditional Cambodian style, the scarf was 3,772 feet 3 inches (1,149.8 meters) long.

Another Guinness World Record was set in Phnom Penh when Cambodia’s Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports conducted the world’s largest practical business seminar attended by 2,304 participants.

Cambodia’s capital city is home to Southeast Asia’s sixth-largest sporting venue–named the Phnom Penh National Olympic Stadium–despite the facility has not yet hosted an Olympic event.

The most popular museums in Phnom Penh are its National Museum which showcases the country’s history and archeology as well as music and dance celebrations, and the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum which was previously a Khmer Rouge prison.

Phnom Penh has a hot tropical climate with temperatures consistently around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.22 degrees Celsius).

From an international trade perspective, Cambodia exported an estimated US$14.8 billion worth of goods around the globe in 2019. Its most valuable exports include clothing and accessories (55.9% of Cambodia’s global total), footwear (8.6%), leather articles (7.4%), rice (2.8%), bicycles and other non-motorized cycles (also 2.8%), tanned or dressed furskins (2%), and insulated wire or cable (1.7%) according to the International Trade Centre.

Capital Facts for Phnom Penh, Cambodia: Quick Reference

 

Cambodia separated from France on November 9, 1953. Cambodians celebrate Independence Day as a public holiday each November 9.

Phnom Penh’s land area occupies 262 square miles (679 square kilometers), within which an estimated 2.1 million people lived at August 20, 2020.

At the country level, Cambodia’s land area covers 68,155 square miles (176,520 square kilometers), home to 16.8 million dwellers in August 2020.

Population density is more concentrated within Phnom Penh averaging 7,930 inhabitants per square mile (3,060 per square kilometer).

Zooming out to national land boundaries, Cambodia’s population density drops to 245 residents per square mile (95 per square kilometer).