Number of people living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka: Number of people living in cities with more than 1 million residents was 4.96 million people in 2020. ▲ Rising
Number of people 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 people.
Analysis
The most recent figure for number of people living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Sri Lanka is 4.96 million people, measured in 2020. That is the highest value across all 15 years on record.
That represents a change of up 15.9% over ten years.
Over the whole period, number of people living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Sri Lanka peaked at 4.96 million people in 2020 and was at its lowest, 1.17 million people, in 1950.
That places Sri Lanka 55th out of 182 countries with data for 2020, putting it 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 | 1.26 million people | 1.17 million people | 1.35 million people | 2 |
| 1960s | 1.60 million people | 1.51 million people | 1.69 million people | 2 |
| 1970s | 1.97 million people | 1.89 million people | 2.05 million people | 2 |
| 1980s | 2.46 million people | 2.38 million people | 2.53 million people | 2 |
| 1990s | 3.07 million people | 2.86 million people | 3.29 million people | 2 |
| 2000s | 3.95 million people | 3.82 million people | 4.08 million people | 2 |
| 2010s | 4.45 million people | 4.28 million people | 4.61 million people | 2 |
| 2020s | 4.96 million people | 4.96 million people | 4.96 million people | 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 number of people living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Sri Lanka?
- Number of people living in cities with more than 1 million residents in Sri Lanka was 4.96 million people in 2020, according to European Commission, Joint Research Centre (JRC) (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest number of people living in cities with more than 1 million residents recorded in Sri Lanka?
- The highest recorded value was 4.96 million people in 2020.
- What is the lowest number of people living in cities with more than 1 million residents recorded in Sri Lanka?
- The lowest recorded value was 1.17 million people in 1950.
- How does Sri Lanka rank for number of people living in cities with more than 1 million residents?
- Sri Lanka ranks 55th out of 182 countries with data for 2020.
- Is number of people living in cities with more than 1 million residents rising or falling in Sri Lanka?
- Over the last ten years it is up 15.9%. 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 Number of people 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
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.