Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka

 
Population: 19,668,000 (2005 est.) 
Annual population growth rate: 1.2% (2005 est.) 
  
Gender distribution:

• Male: 47.6%
• Female: 52.4% (2004 est.)  

 
Ethnic groups:

• Sinhalese: 81.89%
• Sri Lankan Moors: 8% 
• Indian Tamil: 5.08% 
• Sri Lankan Tamil: 4.37% 
• Other:  0.66% (2001 prov.)   

Religions:

• Buddhist: 76.71% 
• Muslim: 8.49% 
• Hindu: 7.88% 
• Christian: 6.06% 
• Other:  0.86% (2001 prov.)

 
Languages:

• Sinhala (official and national language): 74%
• Tamil (national language): 18%
• Other: 8%

Note - English is commonly used in government and is spoken competently by about 10% of the population.
 
Literacy:

• Total population: 92.5%  
• Male: 94.5% 
• Female: 90.6% (2003 est.)   

Government 

Capital: Colombo
Note - Sri Jayewardenepura Kotte is the legislative capital. 
 
Administrative divisions: Nine provinces - Central, North Central, Northern, North Western, Eastern, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Uva, Western 
 
Executive branch:

• Head of state and Head of government: President Mahinda Rajapaksa (since 19 November 2005); the President is considered both the head of state and head of government.
• Cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the President in consultation with the Prime Minister
• Elections: President elected by popular vote for a six-year term; election last held 17 November 2005

Legislative branch: Unicameral Parliament (225 seats; members elected by popular vote on the basis of a modified proportional representation system by district to serve six-year terms)

Judicial branch: Supreme Court; Court of Appeals; judges for both courts are appointed by the President

 
Legal system: A highly complex mixture of English common law, Roman-Dutch, Muslim, Sinhalese, and customary law.

Independence: 04 February 1948 (from UK) 

Constitution: Adopted 16 August 1978, certified 31 August 1978

Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal

Economy

GDP (purchasing power parity): Rs. 2366 billion (2005 est.)

Percapita GDP at Market Prices: Rs. 104,347 Million (2004 est.)

GDP - composition by sector:

• Agriculture: Rs. 175,182 Million
• Industry: Rs. 259,256 Million
• Services: Rs. 545,487 Million

Employment:

• Agriculture: 30.7% 
• Industry: 24.5% 
• Services: 44.8% (2005 est.)

Migration, Persons per 1000 households-

• Internal (within last 12 months): 29.0%  
• External (within last 24 months): 60.5% (2001 est.)