COI Report March 2012 - UK Border Agency - Home Office

7 MARCH 2012 SRI LANKA
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:
http://www.cbsl.gov.lk/pics_n_docs/10_pub/_docs/statistics/other/Socio_Econ_%20Data_2011_
e.pdf . The ethnicity breakdown shown in the profile is based on the 1981 census.
There are frequent comments made in conversation in Sri Lanka that, ―There are more Tamils
in Colombo than Sinhalese‖. Published statistics do not support this claim. In some small areas
of Colombo there are indeed a much higher percentage of Tamils than Sinhalese, but equally
there are areas which are considered almost entirely Muslim. In establishing the ethnicity
breakdown, compilers often mix race and religion. Not all Sinhalese are Buddhists, not all
Tamils are Hindus and there are many Muslims and Roman Catholics who are considered
Tamil merely because that is the language they speak. There is additional confusion between
Colombo District and Colombo DSD, and to further confuse matters a widely produced map of
the City of Colombo, shows the city boundary includes the DSDs of Colombo and
Thimbirigasyaya, which could be construed as Colombo metropolitan area.
Thimbirigasyaya DSD to the south of Colombo DSD includes of the areas of Thimbirigasyaya,
Kollupitiya (Colpetty), Cinnamon Gardens, Borella, Bambalapitiya, Narahenpita, Havelock
Town, Wellawatte and Kirillapone. According to the Census of 2001 Information Unit the total
population of Thimbirigasyaya DSD was 263,550, with a breakdown into major religions as
follows:
Buddhist 136,915 – 52%
Hindu 56,719 – 21.5%
Muslim 39,483 – 15%
Roman Catholic 22,507 – 8.5%
Other Christian 7,926 – 3%
A former Chief Justice once told me that there were 400,000 Tamils living in Colombo. Similarly,
Mano Ganesan MP informed me that Colombo District has close to 300,000 Tamils living here
as permanent residents and another 50,000 as temporary residents. Most of the Tamils live
within Colombo City limits but other sizeable numbers live south of the city in the suburbs of
Dehiwala and Mount Lavinia. He added that another 100,000 Tamils reside in Wattala and a
further 50,000 reside further south in Kalutara. This would estimate up to 500,000 living in
Colombo and its immediate environs. Clearly these figures would be with regard to Colombo
District, and based on the 2008 estimated figure above, would indicate that between 16 – 20%
of the total population of the Colombo district are Tamil.
It is widely accepted that there has been a significant movement of population into Colombo
District since 2008 as the civil conflict entered its final phase. People from the five districts of the
Northern Province who had been living in and around Colombo for the past five years were
instructed to register with the police on 21 st September 2008. Figures showed that the number
of people who had migrated from the five districts to Colombo since 21 st September 2003 stood
at 37,037. Out of these, 2,242 were considered new entries, as they had not been previously
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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