Facts and Figures - Sri Lanka

Republic

Latitude 5° 55. to 9° 50. north, longitude 79° 42. to 81° 52., 650km north of the equator's

430km north to south, 225km east to westbound

1,340km

Sri Lankan rupee (LKR)

4 February 1948

Sri Jayewardenepura

Colombo

9 provinces; Central, North Central, North Eastern, North Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Uva, Western, Eastern Province.

Typically tropical, with a northeast monsoon (December to March) bringing unsettled weather to the north and east, and a southwest monsoon (June to October) bringing bad weather to the south and west

Mostly low, flat to rolling plain; mountains in south-central interior

Pidurutalagala, 2,524m

Bambarakanda, 263m

The Blue Water Lily (Nymphaea stellata)

8,000sq.km

21,128,773

1.3%

309 people per sq Km

74 Female, 64 Male

Female 87.9 Male 92.5

Sinhalese 73.8%, Sri Lankan Moors 7.2%, Indian Tamil 4.6%, Sri Lankan Tamil 3.9%, other 0.5%, unspecified 10%

Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil (national language) 18%, other 8% Note: English (a link language commonly) is used in government and spoken competently by about 10% of the populations

Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%, unspecified 10%

Sri Lanka Standard Time is five and a half hours ahead of GMT. (Allowance should be made for summer-time changes in Europe.)

+94 or 0094

230 . 240 volts, 50 cycles AC. If you travel with a laptop computer bring a stabilizers

Sri Lanka's most dynamic sectors are food processing, textiles and apparel, food and beverages, port construction, telecommunications, and insurance and banking. In 2006, plantation crops made up only 15% of exports (90% in 1970), while textiles and garments accounted for more than 60%. About 800,000 Sri Lankans work abroad, 90% of them in the Middle East. They send home more than US$1 billion a year.