33 Countries of Origin’ Profiles

SRI LANKA LITERACY RATE: 91.2% 4 ETHNIC GROUPS: Three ethnic groups — Sinhalese, Tamil, and Muslim — make up more than 99 percent of Sri Lanka’s population, with the Sinhalese alone accounting for nearly three- fourths of the people (74.9% 5 ). The Sinhalese constitute the majority in the southern, western, central, and north-central parts of the country. The Tamil segment comprises two groups — Sri Lankan Tamils (11.2%; long-settled descendants from south-eastern India) and Indian Tamils (4.2%; recent immigrants from south-eastern India, most of whom were migrant workers brought to Sri Lanka under British rule). The foremost concentration of the Sri Lankan Tamils lies in the Jaffna Peninsula and in the adjacent districts of the northern lowlands. Muslims, who trace their origin back to Arab traders of the 8th century, account for about 7.5 percent of the population. Burghers (a community of mixed European descent), Parsis (immigrants from western India), and Veddas (regarded as the aboriginal inhabitants of the country) total less than 1 percent of the population 6 . BELIEF: 70.2% of the Sri Lankan population are Buddhist, and 12.6% are Hindu. Muslim makes up for 9.7% of the population, Roman Catholic 6.1%, other Christian 6.1%, and other 0.05% 7 . Further, whilst more than 90 percent of the Sinhalese are Buddhists, both Sri Lankan and Indian Tamils are overwhelmingly Hindu. The Muslims — adherents of Islam — tend to speak Tamil. Christianity draws its followers from among the Sinhalese, Tamil, and Burgher communities 8 . POLITICAL SITUATION: Sri Lanka’s ethnic relations are characterised by periodic disharmony. Since independence, estranged relations between the Sinhalese and the Tamils have continued in the political arena. Intensifying grievances of the Tamils against the Sinhalese-dominated governments culminated in the late 1970s in a demand by the Tamil 4 https://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sri_lanka_statistics.html 5 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ce.html 6 https://www.britannica.com/place/Sri-Lanka/Plant-and-animal-life#toc24280 7 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ce.html 8 https://www.britannica.com/place/Sri-Lanka/Plant-and-animal-life#toc24280