Basic Information About Sri Lanka:

Population: The population of Sri Lanka is 20,855,115.

GDP:  $ 217.4 billion (2016)

Climate:  Sri Lanka climate is tropical and consists of distinct wet and dry seasons. The Yala monsoon brings abundant rainfall to the country’s western and southern regions from May to September; the area experiences its dry season during December through March. 

People:  The major ethnic groups include not only the Sinhalese and the Sri Lankan Tamils, who compose 74 and 12.6 percent of the population, respectively, but also Indian Tamils (5.5 percent of the population) who view themselves as separate from the Sri Lankan Tamils, as well as “Moors” or Muslims (7.1 percent), “Burghers” and other people of mixed European and Sri Lankan descent (0.4 percent), Malays (0.4 percent), and tiny percentages of others including the aboriginal Veddahs, who are considered to be the island’s original inhabitants.

Religion:  70.19% of Sri Lankans were Theravada Buddhists, 12.6% were Hindus, 9.7% were Muslims (mainly Sunni) and 7.4%Christians (6.1% Roman Catholic and 1.3% other Christian).

Capital:  Capital of Sri Lanka is Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte.

Language:  The principal foreign language spoken on this island nation is English.

Currency:  The Sri Lankan Rupee is the currency of Sri Lanka.

Time Zone:  Sri Lanka Standard Time (SLST) is the time zone for Sri Lanka. It is 5 hours and 30 minutes ahead of GMT/UTC (UTC+05:30). The Sri Lanka Time reverted on 15 April 2006 to match Indian Standard Time calculated from the Allahabad Observatory in India 82.5 ° longitude East of Greenwich, the reference point for GMT.