Share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka: Share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents was 22.0% in 2020. ▲ Rising
Share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Sri Lanka, 1950–2020
Source: European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. Measured in %.
Analysis
The most recent figure for share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Sri Lanka is 22.0%, measured in 2020. That is the highest value across all 15 years on record.
That represents a change of up 7.3% over ten years.
Over the whole period, share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Sri Lanka peaked at 22.0% in 2020 and was at its lowest, 15.0%, in 1950.
Sri Lanka ranks 62nd of 180 countries on this measure, in the middle of the range.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 15 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1950s | 15.4% | 15.0% | 15.7% | 2 |
| 1960s | 15.6% | 15.5% | 15.7% | 2 |
| 1970s | 15.3% | 15.2% | 15.4% | 2 |
| 1980s | 16.2% | 16.0% | 16.3% | 2 |
| 1990s | 18.1% | 17.5% | 18.7% | 2 |
| 2000s | 20.0% | 19.8% | 20.2% | 2 |
| 2010s | 20.9% | 20.5% | 21.2% | 2 |
| 2020s | 22.0% | 22.0% | 22.0% | 1 |
Countries ranked near Sri Lanka
More reference data data for Sri Lanka
- Summer temperature anomalies 0.2745 °C (2026)
- Temperature anomalies by month 0.0088 °C (2026)
- Spring temperature anomalies 0.1264 °C (2026)
- Winter temperature anomalies 0.372 °C (2025)
- Universal right to vote in practice 2 (2025)
- Consumer price index 292.34 2010 = 100 (2025)
- Autumn temperature anomalies 0.7892 °C (2025)
- Annual precipitation 2,057 millimeters (2025)
- Civil liberties rating 4 (2025)
- Universal right to vote 2 (2025)
Frequently asked questions
- What is share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Sri Lanka?
- Share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Sri Lanka was 22.0% in 2020, according to European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents recorded in Sri Lanka?
- The highest recorded value was 22.0% in 2020.
- What is the lowest share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents recorded in Sri Lanka?
- The lowest recorded value was 15.0% in 1950.
- How does Sri Lanka rank for share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents?
- Sri Lanka ranks 62nd out of 180 countries with data for 2020.
- Is share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents rising or falling in Sri Lanka?
- Over the last ten years it is up 7.3%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Sri Lanka data come from?
- The figures come from European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Share of population living in cities with more than 1 million residents. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 15 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
Percentage of the total population living in cities with 1 million or more people. City boundaries are defined using a consistent global approach based on satellite imagery and population data.