Provinces of Sri Lanka


In Sri Lanka, provinces are the first level administrative division. They were first established by the British rulers of Ceylon in 1833. Over the next century most of the administrative functions were transferred to the districts, the second level administrative division. By the middle of the 20th century the provinces had become merely ceremonial. This changed in 1987 when, following several decades of increasing demand for a decentralization, the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. Currently there are nine provinces.

History

Anuradhapura Kingdom

British Ceylon

After the British took control of the entire island of Ceylon in 1815 it was divided into three ethnic based administrative structures: Low Country Sinhalese, Kandyan Sinhalese and Tamil. In 1829 the British established the Colebrooke–Cameron Commission to review the colonial government of Ceylon, including its administrative structures. The Commission recommended that the existing three ethnic based administrations be unified into a single administration divided into five geographic provinces. Accordingly, on 1 October 1833 five provinces under one administration came into being:
Over the next fifty years four additional provinces were created, taking the total number to nine:
The number of provinces remained static until September 1988 when, in accordance with the Indo-Lanka Accord, President Jayewardene issued proclamations enabling the Northern and Eastern provinces to be one administrative unit administered by one elected Council, creating the North Eastern Province. The proclamations were only meant to be a temporary measure until a referendum was held in the Eastern Province on a permanent merger between the two provinces. However, the referendum was never held and successive Sri Lankan presidents issued proclamations annually extending the life of the "temporary" entity. The merger was bitterly opposed by Sri Lankan nationalists. On 14 July 2006, after a long campaign against the merger, the JVP filed three separate petitions with the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka requesting a separate Provincial Council for the East. On 16 October 2006 the Supreme Court ruled that the proclamations issued by President Jayewardene were null and void and had no legal effect. The North-East Province was formally de-merged into the Northern and Eastern provinces on 1 January 2007.
Sri Lanka currently has nine provinces, seven of which have had provincial councils from the start.

Provinces

Current

All population data are from the most recent census of Sri Lanka, in 2012.
ProvinceArea mapProvincial
capital
Date
Created
Land
area
in km2
Inland
water
area
in km2
Total
area
in km2
Population
Population
density
per km2
Central Province, Sri LankaKandy2,571,557
Eastern Province, Sri LankaTrincomalee1,555,510
North Central Province, Sri LankaAnuradhapura1,266,663
Northern Province, Sri LankaJaffna1,061,315
North Western Province, Sri LankaKurunegala2,380,861
Sabaragamuwa ProvinceRatnapura1,928,655
Southern Province, Sri LankaGalle2,477,285
Uva ProvinceBadulla1,266,463
Western Province, Sri LankaColombo5,851,130
Total20,359,439