Million Cities on Indochinese Peninsula 1950-2035

This bar chart race shows urban agglomerations with over one million urban population on Indochinese Peninsula (Mainland Southeast Asia), and urbanization in percentage and total urban population, from 1950 to projected in 2035.

Countries and their flags are depicted as they exist today. Indochinese Peninsula includes the countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (former Burma), Thailand, Vietnam, and Peninsular Malaysia.

Malaysian cities located in the two states on Borneo are not included in the bar chart or map. However, urban population and urbanization in percentage includes these states.

What happened to Phnom Penh?

Before Cambodia's civil war and the Pol Pot regime, the capital Phnom Penh experienced steady growth, becoming a vibrant city and the political and economic hub of the country.
The rapid rise in Phnom Penh's population from 1967 to 1975 was largely due to the Cambodian Civil War. During this period, Phnom Penh became a refuge for people fleeing the fighting and devastation in the countryside.
During the Khmer Rouge regime (1975–1979), led by Pol Pot, the entire population of Phnom Penh was forcibly evacuated. The regime aimed to create an agrarian socialist society, viewing cities as corrupt. People were displaced to the countryside, and Phnom Penh became a ghost city.
After the fall of the Khmer Rouge in 1979, people gradually returned to Phnom Penh, rebuilding the city from ruins. The population grew as refugees, survivors, and new migrants moved back in, though the city took years to recover from the devastation and depopulation it had experienced during Pol Pot’s rule. Today, Phnom Penh is once again Cambodia's largest and most populous city.

Data sources and projections: World Bank and UN

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Data visualization created with flourish.studio https://flourish.studio