The current annual growth rate of 0.35% is projected to come to a standstill by around the year 2035. The country is steadily growing and needs to utilize its resources more carefully to sustain its development for the future. Sri Lanka is a developing country with a lot of potential to grow if it can utilize its large work force and provide job and development opportunities for them.

This is also why the population in the 0-14 year old age bracket makes up 24.1% of the total population. The birth rate in Sri Lanka has risen in the last few years to around 17.04 births per population of 1000 people. The great number of marriages have also resulted in a greater rate of births as well. On the other hand, due to the large number of youngsters in the country, the marriage rates have only gotten higher in the last few decades. As the fertility rate continues to decline in the coming decades, population growth will slow further before the negative migration takes over to decrease the population. The fertility rate of 2.21 children per woman is above the population replacement rate of 2.1 children per woman however, Sri Lanka experiences a significant negative net migration that slows population growth. From 2019 to 2020, the population grew by 0.42%, adding about 89,000 people to the population. Population growth in Sri Lanka has been below 1.00% since 2000. By the end of the century, the population is expected to fall to 15.46 million people. Current projections show that the population will reach its peak around 2037 at 22.19 million people, after which the population will begin declining. At the end of 2020, the Sri Lanka population is expected to reach 21.41 million people.

Sri lanka map distance chart