Cambodia Provinces

Cambodia is built around one lake. The Tonlé Sap swells and shrinks with the Mekong, and the plains round it hold most of the people and the rice. The province is the unit that tells you which side of the lake, the river or the hills a round is on, and there are 25 of them.

The quiz: Name to place, on the map
Grouped by: Four parts of the country, an unofficial cut
In the game: 25 provinces

Start

What you are looking at

The provinces (khaet) of Cambodia, with the capital, Phnom Penh, which has the same rank. Most are named for their main town, so the name of a province is usually also the name of a district inside it. Kep, Pailin, Preah Sihanouk and Phnom Penh are the small ones: the first two are cut out of larger provinces, and the last two are the port and the capital.

Tboung Khmum, the newest, was split off from Kampong Cham in 2013, so older maps show one province where this one shows two. Some maps spell it Tbong Khmum.

The groups are not an official classification. Cambodia has no tier between the province and the country, so the quiz cuts the 25 into the central plains, the Tonlé Sap basin, the south west and the coast, and the north east highlands, to let you drill it a piece at a time. The provinces are the Cambodia Districts grouped, so the borders of the two maps match exactly.

How to place one

Find the lake first. The Tonlé Sap sits in the middle of the country, and Siem Reap, Battambang, Pursat, Kampong Chhnang and Kampong Thom are the provinces round it.
Then the capital. Phnom Penh is where the Mekong and the Tonlé Sap rivers meet, with Kandal wrapped round it.
Read the east as plains. Kampong Cham, Tboung Khmum, Prey Veng, Svay Rieng and Takeo fill the flat land towards Vietnam.
Read the south west as a coast. Koh Kong, Preah Sihanouk, Kampot and Kep run along the Gulf of Thailand, with Kampong Speu behind them in the hills.
Leave the north east for last. Kratié, Stung Treng, Ratanakiri, Mondulkiri and Preah Vihear are large and thinly settled.

Every province, by group

Central plains7 provinces: Kampong Cham, Kandal, Phnom Penh, Prey Veng, Svay Rieng, Takeo, Tboung Khmum
Tonlé Sap8 provinces: Banteay Meanchey, Battambang, Kampong Chhnang, Kampong Thom, Oddar Meanchey, Pailin, Pursat, Siem Reap
South-west and coast5 provinces: Kampong Speu, Kampot, Kep, Koh Kong, Preah Sihanouk
North-east highlands5 provinces: Kratié, Mondulkiri, Preah Vihear, Ratanakiri, Stung Treng

Worked examples

Siem Reap

The one with the temples

Siem Reap is the province north of the Tonlé Sap that holds Angkor, the temple complex that most visitors to Cambodia come for. It is one of the biggest on the lake side, and a useful anchor for the provinces round it.

Kep

The small one on the coast

Kep is one of the smallest provinces, a stretch of coast east of Kampot, known for its crab market. It is easy to overlook beside the larger provinces on either side.

Tboung Khmum

The newest

Tboung Khmum was cut out of Kampong Cham in 2013, east of the Mekong on the Vietnamese border. Maps older than that show Kampong Cham as one large province.

Frequently asked questions

How many provinces does Cambodia have?

25: 24 provinces and the capital, Phnom Penh, which ranks alongside them.

Which province is the newest?

Tboung Khmum, created from the eastern half of Kampong Cham in 2013.

Where do the groups come from?

They are an unofficial cut into four parts of the map, so you can drill a piece at a time. Cambodia itself has no tier between the province and the country.

The tier below this one is Cambodia Districts. For another country at this level, see Bangladesh Divisions.