Battambang province is located in the northwest bordering Thailand. With its 11,622 km², Battambang has a population of 899,556 comprising 430,443 males and 459,088 females. The percentage of females’ population is 51%. The province consists of 13 districts, 96 communes and 741 villages. The population of this province constitutes 6.9% of Cambodia’s population.
Due to the conflict, census (1998) enumeration could not be constitutes the urban portion population of the province. This province has changed hands between Thailand and Cambodia on several occasions in the past few countries.
It was only returned to Cambodian control in 1907and recently as WWII the Thais cut a deal with the Japanese to take control again for several years. Before Cambodia’s civil war Battambang was the largest and richest province in Cambodia, but ceded a large chunk of its territory to Banteay Meanchey for the creation of the new province. It shares a long border with the Tonle Sap Lake and is the fifth largest in the country. Battambang was untouched for much of the early 1070s, as fighting range elsewhere around the country. For this reason the whole area was viewed with much suspicion by Khmer Rouge leaders and was the victim of successive central purges.
Life was little better after the war, as the ongoing guerrilla war and the proliferation of thousands of land mines devastated the agricultural industry that hand build the economy. However, the province is slowly recovering as ddeming groups free up land agriculture and the many refugees who returned here during the 1990s are permanency settle Tourism has a lot of potential, as not only is the provincial capital a popular stop, but there are extensive example of Angkorian heritage in the surrounding countryside. Travel around the province has traditionally been slow due to disastrous roads, but both NH5 passing through the heart of the province, and NH57 to Pailin are undergoing comprehensive renovations.
