POPULATION OF SRI LANKA BY DISTRICT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- The enumeration stage of the Census of Population and Housing 2024, the 15th census in Sri Lanka's series of censuses, was conducted from October 2024 to the second week of February 2025. The census moment was 00:00 hours on 19th December 2024.
- According to this census, the population of Sri Lanka was recorded as 21,763,170.
- This census has shown an increase of 1,403,731 compared to the population reported in the Census of Population and Housing 2012.
- During the 2001-2012 inter-census period, the average annual population growth rate was 0.7 percent. For the 2012-2024 inter-census period, the average annual population growth rate is 0.5 percent. This indicates that while the population growth rate in Sri Lanka has slowed, the population continues to increase.
- When considering the population by province in Sri Lanka, the Western Province has the highest population, accounting for 28.1 percent of the total, while the Northern Province has the lowest, with 5.3 percent of the total population.
- When considering the population distribution at the district level, Gampaha District has reported the highest population, with 2,433,685 persons. Colombo District follows, with a population of 2,374,461. Together, only these two districts have a population of over 2 million.
- Apart from Gampaha and Colombo districts, the highest population is reported from Kurunegala (1,760,829), Kandy (1,461,269), Kalutara (1,305,552), Ratnapura (1,145,138), and Galle (1,096,585) districts respectively, with each of these districts reporting a population of more than one million.
- As in the previous censuses, districts with the lowest population in the country this time are Mullaitivu (122,542), Mannar (123,674), Kilinochchi (136,434) and Vavuniya (172,257) districts in the Northern Province.
- The highest annual growth rate of 2.23 percent has been reported from Mullaitivu district. The lowest annual growth rate is recorded in Vavuniya District (0.01 percent).
- As in previous censuses, the highest population density of 3,549 persons per square kilometer is reported in Colombo District, while the lowest population density is reported in Mullaitivu District, which has a population density of 50 persons per square kilometer.
Click Below for the Report in Sinhala, Tamil and English
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