Located just off the Southern tip of India, Srilanka is an island country in the Indian Ocean. It has a population of approximately 20 million people with the highest density concentrated in Colombo, the country's major port and industrial hub. With a net population growth of around 0.7%, this tropical Island of Srilanka is diverse ethnically, linguistically as well as religiously.

In the mid 1980s, due to the outbreak of hostilities between the government and the Tamil separatists, scores of Tamil civilians left the island of Srilanka and over 200,000 Tamils have taken refuge in the west. ( July 2006 EST ).

In December 2004, Srilanka suffered the worst natural disaster caused by an under sea earthquake off Indonesia which killed over 30,000 people.

Demographic Statistics-2006

Age Structure-
0-14 years : 24.1% (male 2,488,689/female 2,379,233)
15-64 years : 68.6% (male 6,727,399/female 7,140,751)
65 years and over : 7.3% (male 687,842/female 798,326) (2006 EST.)

Median Age-
total: 29.8 years
male: 28.7 years
female: 30.9 years (2006 EST)

Population Growth Rate - 0.78% (2006 EST)

Birth Rate - 15.51 births/1,000 population (2006 EST)

Death Rate - 6.52 deaths/1,000 population (2006 EST)

Net Migration Rate - - 1.23 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2006 EST)

Sex Ratio - at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 0.94 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.86 male(s)/female
total population: 0.96 male(s)/female (2006 EST)

Infant Mortality Rate - total: 13.97 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 15.18 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 12.7 deaths/1,000 live births (2006 EST)

Life Expectancy at Birth - total population: 73.41 years
male: 70.83 years
female: 76.12 years (2006 EST)

Total Fertility Rate - 1.84 children born/woman (2006 EST)

Nationality -
noun: Sri Lankan(s), adjective: Sri Lankan

Ethnic Groups - Sinhalese 73.8%, Sri Lankan Moors 7.2%, Indian Tamil 4.6%, Sri Lankan Tamil 3.9%, other 0.5%, unspecified 10% (2001 census provisional data)

Religion - Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%, unspecified 10% (2001 census provisional data)

Languages - Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (national language) 18%, other 8%.

Note: English is commonly used in governmental communication and business. It is spoken proficiently by about 10% of the population.

Literacy - definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 92.3%
male: 94.8%
female: 90% (2003 EST)