Kon BambooSchoot

Cambodia gets more urban
The Kingdom's second post-UNTAC census shows that overall, population growth is slowing but the percentage of the people living in cities is rising

VANDY RATTANA

Census data being handed out to participants at a ceremony Wednesday.

Cambodia's population is fast approaching 14 million people, more than half of whom are women, according to preliminary results from the first general census to be conducted in a decade, which were released Wednesday.

The census, which was supported by the United Nations Population Fund and the Japan International Cooperation Agency, also found that population growth was slowing.

While Cambodia remains a largely rural country, more people were living in cities, the census found.

"According to the preliminary results, the population of Cambodia stood at 13,388,910 at midnight on March 3, 2008, consisting of 6,495,512 males and 6,893,398 females," said Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Sar Kheng, who also chairs the National Census Committee.

"The provisional figures at the national level indicate that the total fertility rate and growth rate of the population has slowed down as predicted [due to rising prosperity and improved female literacy acting to reduce birth rates,]" he added at a ceremony to mark the release of the census.

The 2004 Cambodia Inter-censal Population Survey, which unlike the 2008 census did not take into account the institutionalised and the homeless, estimated the Kingdom's population to be 12,824,000, which broke down along gender lines to 6,197,000 males and 6,627,000 females.