Districts of Sri Lanka


In Sri Lanka, districts are the second-level administrative divisions, and are included in a province. There are 25 districts organized into 9 provinces. Each district is administered under a District Secretary, who is appointed by the central government. The main tasks of the District Secretariat involve coordinating communications and activities of the central government and Divisional Secretariats. The District Secretariat is also responsible for implementing and monitoring development projects at the district level and assisting lower-level subdivisions in their activities, as well as revenue collection and coordination of elections in the district. A district is divided into a number of Divisional Secretary's Divisions, which are in turn subdivided into 14,022 Grama Niladhari Divisions. There are 331 DS divisions in the country.

History

The country was first divided into several administrative units during the Anuradhapura Kingdom. The kingdom was divided into three provinces; Rajarata, Ruhuna and Malaya Rata. These were further subdivided into smaller units called rata. Over time, the number of provinces increased, but the second-level administrative division continued to be the rata. However, with the country eventually being divided into more than one kingdom and with foreign colonial missions landing and taking parts of the country under their control, this structure began to change. The territory of the Kotte Kingdom was organized into four disavas, which were further subdivided into forty korales. The korales had their own civil and military officials with a small militia. The Jaffna kingdom appears to have had a similar administrative structure to this with four provinces.
When the Portuguese took over parts of the country after their arrival in 1505, they maintained more or less the same administrative structure followed by Sri Lankan rulers. During the Dutch rule in the country, the terrain under their control was divided into three administrative divisions. These were subdivided into disavas as in earlier systems. The British initially continued this system, but following reforms in 1796 to 1802, the country was divided according to ethnic composition. This was abolished by the Colebrook–Cameron reforms in 1833 and a legislative council was created, making the island a politically and administratively single unit. Five provinces were created, later expanded into nine, and these were subdivided into twenty-one districts. These districts were administered by officials known as Government Agents or Assistant Government Agents.
In 1955, the district replaced the province as the country's main administrative unit. Ampara District was created in April 1961, followed by the creation of Mullaitivu and Gampaha districts in September 1978 through a new constitution, which also reintroduced the province as the main administrative unit. The last district to be created was Kilinochchi in February 1984, and the current constitution states that the territory of Sri Lanka consists of 25 administrative districts. These districts may be subdivided or amalgamated by a resolution of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.

Districts

All population data are from the most recent census of Sri Lanka, in 2012.
DistrictArea mapProvinceDistrict
capital
Land
area
in km2
Inland
water
area
in km2
Total
area
in km2
Population
Population
density
per km2
AmparaEasternAmpara649,402
AnuradhapuraNorth CentralAnuradhapura860,575
BadullaUvaBadulla815,405
BatticaloaEasternBatticaloa526,567
ColomboWesternColombo2,324,349
GalleSouthernGalle1,063,334
GampahaWesternGampaha2,304,833
HambantotaSouthernHambantota599,903
JaffnaNorthernJaffna583,882
KalutaraWesternKalutara1,221,948
KandyCentralKandy1,375,382
KegalleSabaragamuwaKegalle840,648
KilinochchiNorthernKilinochchi113,510
KurunegalaNorth WesternKurunegala1,618,465
MannarNorthernMannar99,570
MataleCentralMatale484,531
MataraSouthernMatara814,048
MonaragalaUvaMonaragala451,058
MullaitivuNorthernMullaitivu92,238
Nuwara EliyaCentralNuwara Eliya711,644
PolonnaruwaNorth CentralPolonnaruwa406,088
PuttalamNorth WesternPuttalam762,396
RatnapuraSabaragamuwaRatnapura1,088,007
TrincomaleeEasternTrincomalee379,541
VavuniyaNorthernVavuniya172,115
Total2520,359,439

Citations