COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

SRI LANKA 7 MARCH 2012
Country of Origin Information Service
UK Border Agency
9 November 2011
Dear colleague,
Re. Population Statistics – Colombo
The last published census of Sri Lanka was in 2001. At the time, the ongoing conflict made the
results unreliable as data was not collected from some districts. Out of the 5 Districts in the
Northern Province, Jaffna, Kilinochchi, Mullaitivu were not covered during the preliminary and
final census and Vavuniya and Mannar were covered only partially. In the Eastern Province,
Ampara was covered completely, but Trincomalee and Batticaloa were only covered partially.
As such, estimates for these districts were based on the information collected during a listing
and numbering operation of the 2001 census, or on the Registrar General's estimates based on
the registration of births and deaths. Furthermore, there has been significant internal migration
within the country and migration overseas since then;
http://www.statistics.gov.lk/PopHouSat/PDF/Population/p9p1%20Growth.pdf
With regard to Colombo District, the total population according to the Census of 2001
Information Unit was 2,230,612, with a breakdown into major religions as follows:
Buddhist 1,573,540 – 70.5%
Muslim 237,932 – 10.7%
Hindu 197,802 – 8.9%
Roman Catholic – 173,581 – 7.8%
Other Christian 47,757 – 2.1%
Colombo District comprises of 13 Divisional Secretariat Divisions (DSD), one of which is
Colombo DSD. Colombo DSD includes the areas of Fort, Pettah, Slave Island, Dematagoda,
Maradana, Hultsdorf, Kotahena, Grandpass and Mutwal. According to the Census of 2001
Information Unit the total population of Colombo DSD was 376,770, with a breakdown into
major religions as follows:
Muslim 134,271 – 35.6%
Buddhist 94,046 – 25.0%
Hindu 89,597 – 23.8%
Roman Catholic 52,229 – 13.9%
Other Christian 6,627 – 1.8%
268 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.