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From 1953 to 1975 Phu Quoc housed a large prison camp run by South Vietnam.
Phu Quoc Prison was built by the French to detain captured Viet Minh fighters. During the Vietnam War, Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army prisoners of war were guarded by South Vietnamese soldiers. The island lay in IV Corps Tactical Zone and formed an integral part of South Vietnam's system for detaining enemy prisoners.
Source: Wikipedia, Phu Quoc. Checked October 2026.
Phu Quoc covers 575 square km (222 square miles). It runs 50 km (31 miles) from north to south and is 25 km (16 miles) across at its widest.
The island is roughly triangular, so the 50 km and 25 km figures are its length and its width at the broadest point. Phu Quoc is a special zone in An Giang province, and the zone takes in the island proper plus a number of smaller islets.
Source: Wikipedia, Phu Quoc. Checked October 2026.
Phu Quoc lies 40 km (22 nautical miles) west of Ha Tien on the mainland, and 17 nautical miles (31 km) from Kampot in Cambodia.
The island lies south of the Cambodian coast and south of Kampot. Ha Tien is the nearest coastal town in Vietnam. Rach Gia is 62 nautical miles (115 km) away, and Laem Chabang in Thailand is nearly 290 nautical miles (540 km) away.
Source: Wikipedia, Phu Quoc. Checked October 2026.
On 16 June 2025 Phu Quoc became one of 13 newly established or re-organized special administrative zones.
The special administrative zone includes the island proper and 21 smaller islets. Duong Dong ward on the west coast is the administrative centre, and the other ward is An Thoi on the southern tip. On 1 July the Secretary of the Party Committee of the special zone was appointed, Le Quoc Anh.
As of 2025. Source: Wikipedia, Phu Quoc. Checked October 2026.
About 179,480 people lived on Phu Quoc in 2020.
That is the permanent population on an island of 575 square km. In 1822 the British envoy John Crawfurd was told that the inhabitants numbered four to five thousand, so the population is now many times larger. The figure is for permanent residents and does not count visitors.
As of 2020. Source: Wikipedia, Phu Quoc. Checked October 2026.
A mountain ridge known as the 99 Peaks runs through Phu Quoc, and Chua Mountain rises to 603 m (1,978 ft).
The ridge runs the length of the island. In March 1822 the British envoy John Crawfurd stopped here on his way from Singapore to Siam and described the island as commonly bold high land, mostly covered by a great forest, with hills rising to seven or eight hundred feet.
Source: Wikipedia, Phu Quoc. Checked October 2026.
Phu Quoc National Park was established in 2001 and covers 336.57 square km (129.95 square miles).
The park was an upgrade of a former conservation zone, and it covers the northern part of the island. Early accounts also describe a great forest here: in the 1820s the envoy John Crawfurd was told that it held deer, hogs, wild buffaloes and oxen, but no leopards or tigers.
Source: Wikipedia, Phu Quoc. Checked October 2026.
A marine protected area of 187 square km (72 square miles) was set up around Phu Quoc in 2007.
The protected area lies at the northern and southern ends of the island. The sea around Phu Quoc is described as one of the richest fishing grounds in Vietnam, and the aim is to secure coral reef zones, seagrass beds and mangrove forests, which are key spawning and nursery grounds. Green turtles, leatherback turtles, dolphins and dugongs live there.
Source: Wikipedia, Phu Quoc. Checked October 2026.
Climate, airports and UNESCO status for Phu Quoc are on its destination page. More places are on the fun facts index.