Page last modified 20 August 2023

Sri Lanka

Community

Area 65,610 square kilometres (land area 64,630 square kilometres)

Population,

1,500,000 (1850)

1,697,975 (1857)

2,763,984 (1881)

3,008,466 (1891)

3,578,333 (1901)

5,312,548 (1931)

6,695,605 (1946)

7,500,000 (1950)

9,875,000 (1960)

12,486,000 (1970)

15,035,000 (1980)

17,330,000 (1990)

18,780,000 (2000)

20,261,000 (2010)

20,970,000 (2015)

21,670,000 (2018)

Ethnicity, %

	Arab	Malay	Sinhalese	Tamil All	Tamil Indian^1	Tamil Sri Lanka	White
1891			67.8			24.1	0.9
1900	6.3	0.3	65.3	26.0
1910		0.3	65.1	26.6			0.3
1944	6.3	0.3	67.0	24.9	15.0	9.9
1953	5.7		69.4	22.9	12.0	10.9	0.1
1970	7.0		72.0	21.0
1981	7.0		74.0	18.0	5.0	13.0
2012	9.2		74.9	15.4	4.2	11.2

¹Agreement with India for repatriation of Indian Tamils to India.� In the 1980s and 1990s, 300,000 Tamils left Sri Lanka, one third to India and two thirds as refugees to developed countries.

Religion, Buddhism was introduced to Sri Lanka from India in the third century BC.

	Buddhist	Christian All	Christian R C	Hindu	Muslim Sunni
1890		10.0	7.0
1910	59.8	9.8	8.0	23.1	6.9
1945	61.0	7.0		22.0	9.0
1970	67.4	7.7		17.6	7.1
1981	69.0	8.0		15.0	8.0
2001	71.1	7.0		12.0	9.0
2011	70.2	7.4		12.6	9.7

Birth and death rates Below replacement rate = 2.1

	Fertility Rate	Birth Rate	Infant Mortality	Death Rate	% Aged Under 15	% Aged Over 65	% Urban
1930							13.2
1950		39.0 (+27.0)	91.0	12.0	40.7	3.9	15.0
1960	5.5	35.0 (+23.2)	71.6	11.8	42.0	4.5	16.4
1970	4.3	29.0 (+21.2)	54.4	7.8	40.3	3.7	19.5
1980	3.4	27.6 (+21.3)	39.7	6.3	35.9	4.4	18.8
1990	2.5	20.0 (+13.5)	18.0	6.5	32.1	5.5	18.6
2000	2.2	18.0 (+11.0)	14.0	7.0	26.8	6.2	18.4
2010	2.2	18.0 (+11.5)	9.7	6.5	25.4	7.3	18.3
2015	2.2	15.6 (+8.8)	7.5	6.8	24.6	9.3	18.4
2016			7.0		24.3	9.7	18.4
2017	2.2	16.1 (+9.1)	6.7	7.0
2018			6.4		24.2	10.5

Life expectancy,

31.7 (1921); 32.7 (M), 30.7 (F)

56.6 (1952); 56.0 (M), 58.0 (F)

59.7 (1960); 57.3 (M), 62.2 (F)

64.3 (1970); 62.4 (M), 66.2 (F)

68.3 (1980); 66.3 (M), 70.4 (F)

69.7 (1990); 66.3 (M), 73.2 (F)

71.1 (2000); 67.5 (M), 74.9 (F)

74.3 (2010); 70.9 (M), 77.9 (F)

77.1 (2020); 73.7 (M), 80.3 (F)

Population of principal cities, 1,000s MA = Metropolitan Area

	COLOMBO	Galle	Jaffna	Kandy^1	KOTTE
1800			4
1850	40
1866	80
1871	100
1891	127		43
1901	155	37		27
1910	185		40
1931	284	38	46	37
1946	361	49	63	52
1953	426	56	77	57	54
1963		65	95	68
1970	1,250 MA		100
1981		76	118	98	101
1993	2,026 MA	86	149	105	110
2001		91		110	116
2009
2011	2,324 MA	99	84*	125

*Reduction due to civil war.

¹Capital of the Kingdom of Kandy, 1480 � 1815; captured by the British 1815. The economic capital is now COLOMBO but to ease congestion, KOTTE has been designated the administrative capital.

Wealth; Gross Domestic Product (nominal values)

	GDP, US$ million	Total GDP, % of USA	GDP per capita, US$	GDP per capita % of USA
1948	561	0.25	79	5.18
1956	1,000	0.28
1960	1,400	0.26	143	4.76
1965	1,700	0.23	150	3.92
1970	2,300	0.22	185	3.53
1975	3,800	0.23	280	3.58
1980	4,020	0.14	272	2.16
1985	5,880	0.14	377	2.06
1990	8,030	0.14	470	1.96
1995	13,020	0.18	710	2.36
2000	16,600	0.17	846	2.32
2005	23,500	0.18	1,260	2.84
2010	56,725	0.38	2,820	5.83
2015	80,600	0.45	3,845	6.84
2016	81,300	0.44	3,835	6.67

GDP by primary sector

	Agriculture % GDP	Agriculture % employed	Industry % GDP	Industry % employed	Services % GDP	Services % employed
1960		56		14.0		30.0
1980	27.0	54.0	16.1	14.0	57.0	36.0
1990	26.0	49.0	25.3	16.1	48.4	34.0
2000	21.0	38.0	27.0	17.0	52.0	45.0
2010	13.0	32.7	29.6	24.2	57.4	43.1
2016	8.2	28.4	30.6	25.7	82.6	45.9

Communications

Language Official; Sinhala.� English, Tamil also used; English was the official language until 1956.� The Tamils objected to the change of official language to Sinhala.

	Sinhala	Tamil
1910	69.0
1945	69.0	21.0
1960	69.0	21.0
1990	72.0	21.0

Literacy

20.0% (1901)*

75.0% (1960)

86.5% (1980); 90.5% (M), 82.4% (F)

86.8% (1990); 91.3% (M), 82.0% (F)

90.2% (1995); 93.4% (M), 87.2% (F)

91.9% (2000); 94.5% (M), 89.3% (F)

91.5% (2010); 93.2% (M), 89.9% (F)

92.6% (2015); 93.6% (M), 91.7% (F)

*55.7% of illiterates were female.

Physical communications � roads

	Roads (km)	Surfaced (km)	Motor vehicles	Cars	Commercial Vehicles
1941				20,082	4,394
1943	10,547
1947				20,892	9,464
1950				32,500	14,800
1956			81,500	59,100
1959			123,447	74,721
1961	19,827			83,800
1968			161,154	84,678	29,186
1980			337,382	120,873	55,838
1985	66,176		523,723	148,587	98,859
1992				189,477	113,739
1999	73,500			219,125	323,809
2002				253,447	328,913
2006	91,907		800,000	338,608	431,594
2010	114,093	16,977
2013			5,203,678*	528,094	329,648#
2016			6,302,141**	672,502	341,911#

*Includes 2,715,727 motor cycles.

**Includes 3,359,501 motor cycles.

#Motor Lorries

Railways; First railway opened 1865, Colombo to Ambepussa.

Length, kilometres

119 (1870)

221 (1880)

308 (1890)

478 (1900)

931 (1910)

1,170 (1920)

1,531 (1930)

1,531 (1940)

1,443 (1950)

1,469 (1956)

1,484 (1964)

1,453 (1985)

1,447 (2003-2014)

Electronic communications, Radio broadcasting from 1923. TV broadcasting began 13 April 1979

	Telephones (landlines)	Mobile Telephones	Radios	Televisions	PCs	Internet Users
1938	10,424		6,007
1940			9,736
1943	11,718		11,628
1947			18,714
1950	16,860		34,000
1960			350,000
1961			390,000
1962	32,800
1968	57,155
1980	65,000		1,700,000	50,000
1990	121,400	1,010	3,400,000	750,000	3,000
1995		51,300	3,700,000	1,480,000	20,000
1998						14,000
2000	676,400	430,000	3,900,000	2,200,000	135,000
2002						200,000
2005	1,244,000	3,360,000			734,000
2008						1,163,500
2010		17,539,000				2,100,000
2012	2,796,000
2016	2,479,802	25,800,000				7,127,000

Tourism: Visitors to Sri Lanka,

320,000 (1980)

275,456 (1985)

298,000 (1990)

403,000 (1995)

400,000 (2000)

549,000 (2005)

654,000 (2010)

1,798,000 (2015)