Country · Asia
Sri Lanka
Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is a country in Southern Asia. Its capital city is Colombo. About 21.7 million people live there, in an area of 65 610 square kilometres.
Colombo is Sri Lanka's largest city. The official capital is called Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte and sits right beside it — that is where parliament meets.
Picture credit: SahanJayasinghe97 (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Vyacheslav Argenberg (CC BY 4.0) · Sanduni Dissanayake (CC BY-SA 4.0) · T Chamika (CC0) · Steffen Schmitz (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka lies in Southern Asia, on the continent of Asia.
It sits in the northern half of the world, roughly 779 km from the equator.
It shares a border with 1 country: India.
How big is Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka covers 65 610 square kilometres.
That is about 25 times the size of Luxembourg.
Among the world's countries that makes it the 120th largest.
If everybody spread out evenly, there would be about 330.3 people on every square kilometre.
Who lives in Sri Lanka?
About 21.7 million people live in Sri Lanka.
That is the 57th biggest population in the world.
People here speak Sinhala and Tamil.
They pay with the Sri Lankan rupee (Rs රු).
On average, people born here can expect to live about 76 years.
The land of Sri Lanka
It lies inside the tropics, which is the single biggest reason its weather is the way it is.
What makes Sri Lanka different?
A dish the country is known for: Rice and curry, pittu and kiribath.
Websites from here often end in .lk.
Sri Lanka and the rest of the world
Out of every thousand people alive on Earth, about 3 live in Sri Lanka.
It takes up about 0.05 % of all the land that countries stand on.
Within Asia it is the 35th largest of 46 countries, and the 22nd most populated.
That is busier than the world average of roughly 60 people per square kilometre.
Sri Lanka and its neighbours
India, its largest neighbour, is about 50.1 times bigger.
India has more people: 1.4 billion against 21.7 million.
Nature and animals
Of the animals on this site, 2 live wild in Sri Lanka: Indian peafowl and Sperm whale.
Photographs from Wikimedia Commons under free licences — every credit is on the page itself and in the picture credits.
Questions children ask
What is the capital of Sri Lanka?
The capital of Sri Lanka is Colombo. It is the city where the country's government works from.
How many people live in Sri Lanka?
About 21.7 million people live in Sri Lanka, which makes it the 57th most populated country in the world. (Source: World Bank, 2018.)
Which countries border Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka borders India — 1 neighbour in total.
How big is Sri Lanka?
Sri Lanka covers 65 610 square kilometres, making it the 120th largest country in the world. That is about 25 times the size of Luxembourg.
Which continent is Sri Lanka in?
Sri Lanka is in Asia, in the part called Southern Asia.
Where these numbers come from
Borders and outlines: Natural Earth. Names, capitals, areas, languages and currencies: ISO 3166 data (world-countries). Population: World Bank, 2018. Every derived figure on this page (ranks, density, distance from the equator) is calculated from those values.
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