COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
1.04 There are three main languages spoken: Sinhala (official and national language) 74 per
cent of the population, Tamil (national language) 18 per cent, and English (commonly
used in Government and spoken competently by about 10 per cent of the population).
(CIA World Factbook, Sri Lanka 6 , 27 December 2011).
1.05 A letter from the British High Commission (BHC) in Colombo dated 27 September 2011 7
observed that:
―There are the two national and official languages in Sri Lanka, Sinhala which is spoken
by 74% of the population and Tamil which is spoken by 18% of the population. English
is commonly used in government and business, and is spoken competently by around
40% of the population. Tamil is mainly spoken in Northern and Eastern Provinces, and
in the Hill Country amongst Indian Tamils working on the tea plantations. Persons of all
ethnic backgrounds in these areas may use Tamil as their first language.‖
1.06 As recorded by the Sri Lanka Department for Census and Statistics (Statistical Abstract
2010, Chapter II, table 2.10 website accessed on 1 June 2011) 8 the highest
concentration of Sinhalese population is in the districts of Gampaha, Colombo,
Kurunegala, Kandy and Galle. The districts of Colombo, Ampara, Gampaha, Kandy,
Puttalam and Nuwara Eliya have a high concentration of Tamils (figures from the 2001
census). However, data from Jaffna, Mannar, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu, Kilinochchi,
Batticaloa and Trincomalee districts, in which the 2001 census enumeration was not
completed, were not included.
1.07 A British High Commission (BHC) letter dated 9 November 2011 9 reported:
―The Department of Census and Statistics – Sri Lanka produces estimated mid-year
population figures, the latest being for 2008. These figures show that the estimated
population of Sri Lanka as 20,217,000. The estimated population of Colombo District is
given as 2,488,000.
―The Central Bank of Sri Lanka produces yearly country profiles, the latest of which is
2010. They estimated the population of the country as 20,653,000 and the population of
Western Province, which includes the districts of Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara as
5,865,000.‖
More information can be found in the Sri Lanka Socio-Economic Data 2011, published
by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka in June 2011.
6 CIA - The World Factbook – Sri Lanka
https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ce.html updated on 27 December 2011
Date accessed 27 January 2012
7 British High Commission Colombo, letter dated 27 September 2011
8 Sri Lanka Department for Census and Statistics, Statistical Abstract 2010 – Chapter II (Population),
Table 2.10, Population by ethnic group, census years
http://www.statistics.gov.lk/abstract2010/chapters/Chap2/AB2-10.pdf date accessed 1 June 2011
9 British High Commission Colombo, Letter dated 9 November 2011
The main text of this COI Report contains the most up to date publicly available information as at 3 February 2012.
Further brief information on recent events and reports has been provided in the Latest News section
to 2 March 2012.
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