| Official name: | Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka |
| Government type: | Republic |
| Location : | Latitude 5° 55. to 9° 50. north, longitude 79° 42. to 81° 52., 650km north of the equator |
| Dimensions : | 430km north to south, 225km east to west |
| Coastline : | 1,340km Area :65,525km |
| Currency (code): | Sri Lankan rupee (LKR) |
| Independence: | 4 February 1948 |
| Administrative capital : | Sri Jayewardenepura |
| Commercial capital : | Colombo |
| Administrative divisions: | 9 provinces; Central, North Central, North Eastern, North Western, Sabaragamuwa, Southern, Uva, Western, Eastern Province. |
| Climate: | 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 |
| Terrain: | Mostly low, flat to rolling plain; mountains in south-central interior |
| Highest mountain : | Pidurutalagala, 2,524m |
| Highest waterfall: : | Bambarakanda, 263m National |
| National Flower: | The Blue Water Lily (Nymphaea stellata) |
| National parks and nature reserves area : | 8,000sq.km |
| Population: | 21,128,773 (http://www.statistics.gov.lk) |
| Population growth rate: | 1.3% |
| Population Density: | 309 people per sq km |
| Life Expectancy at Birth: | 74 female, 64 male |
| Literacy rate : | Female 87.9 Male 92.5 |
| Ethnic groups: | Sinhalese 73.8%, Sri Lankan Moors 7.2%, Indian Tamil 4.6%, Sri Lankan Tamil 3.9%, other 0.5%, unspecified 10% (http://www.statistics.gov.lk) |
| Languages: | 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 population |
| Religion: | Buddhist 69.1%, Muslim 7.6%, Hindu 7.1%, Christian 6.2%, unspecified 10% (http://www.statistics.gov.lk) |
| Time zone : | Sri Lanka Standard Time is five and a half hours ahead of GMT. (Allowance should be made for summer-time changes in Europe.) |
| International dialing : | +94 |
| Electricity : | 230 - 240 volts, 50 cycles AC. |
| Flag description: | yellow with two panels; the smaller hoist-side panel has two equal vertical bands of green (hoist side) and orange; the other panel is a large dark red rectangle with a yellow lion holding a sword, and there is a yellow bo leaf in each corner; the yellow field appears as a border around the entire flag and extends between the two panels |
For updates and more details :
http://www.statistics.gov.lk
http://www.gaisma.com/en/location/negombo.html