Topics
Phnom Penh, 
Cambodia
Phnum Pénh
2,261,055 people lived in Phnom Penh in 2025. It is the 222nd largest of the world's 12,138 cities, and the largest in Cambodia, where it is the capital.
Like every city on this site, Phnom Penh is counted as a built-up area seen from above rather than as a city government's territory. Why that changes the number.
In its own language: Phnum Pénh.
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries
People · every five years · 1975 to 2050
How Phnom Penh grew
For every 10 people in Phnom Penh in 1975, there were 329.3 in 2025.
On the UN's projection it will have 2.3 million people in 2050. It passed a million people between 1995 and 2000.
projected (after 2025) · how sure the UN is: high moderate low
How to read this: read it left to right, 1975 to 2050, one column every five years, the height being people. Hatching marks the projected years. Below, a strip of the UN's confidence: strong colour where the census maps are recent and detailed, pale where they are not, blank where the place was not counted as a city.
People · your family's years · 1975 to 2050
Phnom Penh through your family’s years
Put in the years your family were born. You’ll see how many people lived in Phnom Penh in each of those years, and when each of them turned 30.
Cambodia · every city · 2025
Where it is
How to read this: Phnom Penh is the dot in colour with a ring around it. The grey dots are the other cities of Cambodia in 2025, 10 in all, each drawn with an area that matches its people. Countries next door are outlines only.
Area and built-up land · km²
How much land it covers
In 2025, Phnom Penh covered 359 km², and buildings, roads and other built-up land covered 75 km² of it. That is 33 m² of built-up land for each person, about a square 6 by 6 metres. Since 1975, its built-up land has grown to 15.3 times its size, and its people are 32.9 times as many.
How to read this: the outer pale square stands for all the land the city covers, and the solid square inside it for the part with buildings, roads and the like on it. All three squares share a scale, so you can compare them by eye. A hatched one is a year the UN has projected.
Of every 100 people in Cambodia
Its share of Cambodia
Of every 100 people in Cambodia in 2025, 13 lived in Phnom Penh, which is 2.3 million people.
How to read this: shrink Cambodia to 100 people and this is what you get. The coloured squares are the ones who would live in Phnom Penh; the grey ones are everybody else, in other cities, in towns and out in the country.
Ranked by people · 2025
Cities of a similar size
In the world, 2025
- 218 Lanzhou China2,272,104
- 219 Vadodara India2,270,298
- 220 Taichung Taiwan2,268,685
- 221 Denver United States2,265,994
- 222 Phnom Penh2,261,055
- 223 Makassar Indonesia2,255,088
- 224 Ludhiana India2,245,106
- 225 Philadelphia United States2,232,420
- 226 Fukuoka Japan2,225,078
In Cambodia, 2025
- 222 Phnom Penh2,261,055
- 1621 Siem Reap352,948
- 3528 Anlong Veng172,053
How to read this: the number before each name is its place among all 12,138 cities in the world in 2025; bars are people, on one scale per list. Only cities that reach 300,000 people have a page here, so a gap in the numbers is a smaller city.
Apparatus
Sources and method
The figures for Phnom Penh are the UN's own, at five-year steps: an estimate for each of 1975 to 2025, then projection to 2050. Projected years are drawn hatched, and the UN publishes no range of uncertainty for a city. What a city means here, how the UN measures one, and why that number can differ from the one Phnom Penh publishes about itself: how the figures here are put together.
Sources: UN WUP 2025 · Natural Earth · flag-icons. Every source, its licence and how to cite it →
Verified 2026-09-30 · 73 canaries