Khmer Krom

The Khmer Krom (Khmer: ជនជាតិខ្មែរក្រោម, Chónchéatĕ Khmêr Kraôm, [cɔnciət kʰmae kraom]; lit. 'Lower Khmer people' or 'Southern Khmer people') are ethnically Khmer people living in or from the Mekong Delta (Tây Nam Bộ), the south western part of Vietnam known in Khmer as Kampuchea Krom (Khmer: កម្ពុជាក្រោម, Kâmpŭchéa Kraôm [kampuciə kraom] lit. 'Lower Cambodia'). The Khmer Krom people are considered as the indigenous people of parts of Southern Vietnam and have the oldest extant recorded history of inhabiting in the region. In Vietnam, they are recognized as one of Vietnam's fifty-four ethnic minorities.

In accordance with Resolution 117-CT/TƯ issued September 29, 1981 by the Politburo of the Communist Party of Vietnam and Resolution 122-CT issued on May 12, 1982 by the Vietnamese Ministry Committee, the term Khmer (as well as its Vietnamese transliteration Khơ Me and Khơ-me) was sanctioned by the government as the only state-recognized ethnonym of the Khmer Krom people; the Resolutions also stated that all other colloquial exonyms previously used by Vietnamese to refer to Khmer people "are incorrect and have negative racial connotations" and declared that any acts that intended to incite and direct hate speech and discrimination toward the Khmer people are prohibited by the law.

In Khmer, Krom (ក្រោម kraôm) means 'low' or 'below'. It is added to differentiate from the Khmers in Cambodia. Most Khmer Krom live in Tây Nam Bộ, the southern lowland region of historical Cambodia covering an area of 89,000 square kilometres (34,363 sq mi) around modern day Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta, which used to be the southeasternmost territory of the Khmer Empire until its incorporation into Vietnam under the Nguyễn lords in the early 18th century. This marks the final stage of the Vietnamese "March to the South" (Nam tiến).

Khmer Krom people have been members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization since 15 July 2001.

According to the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) "the Khmer Krom people face serious restrictions of freedom of expression, assembly, association, information, and movement".

The majority of Khmer Krom live in Southern Vietnam. According to Vietnamese government figures (2019 census), there are 1,319,652 Khmer Krom in Vietnam. Their distribution is as follows: Sóc Trăng (362,029 people, constituting 30.18% of the province's population and 27.43% of all Khmer in Vietnam), Trà Vinh (318,231 people, constituting 31.53% of the province's population and 24.11% of all Khmer in Vietnam), Kiên Giang (211,282 people, constituting 12.26% of the province's population and 16.01% of all Khmer in Vietnam), An Giang (75,878 people), Bạc Liêu (73,968 people), Bình Dương (65,233 people), Hồ Chí Minh City (50,422 people), Cà Mau (26,110 people), Đồng Nai (23,560 people), Vĩnh Long (22,630 people) each constituting less than 10% of all Khmer in Vietnam.

Other estimates vary considerably, with the Khmer Kampuchea-Krom Federation claiming that there are about 7 million Khmer Krom. A significant number of Khmer Krom also fled to Cambodia, estimated at 1.20 million by one source.

In other parts of the world, there are approximately 40,000 Khmer Krom emigrants notably in the United States (30,000), France (3,000), Australia (1,000), Canada (500). Khmer Krom emigrant communities in the US are located near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and in Washington state.