Sri Lanka

South Asia. Upper middle income. Capital: Colombo. Population 21,756,000 (2025).

Key trends

GDP per person (PPP) (constant international $)

GDP growth (%)

Inflation, consumer prices (% annual)

Life expectancy at birth (years)

Indicators

Each country reports for different years, so check the year beside every figure. Rank 1 is the highest value among countries with recent data.

Economy

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank
GDP per person (PPP)constant international $	14,583	2025	+696	+1,253	115 of 199
GDP growth%	5.0%	2025	+9.6 pp	+0.7 pp	54 of 209
GDP per person growth%	5.7%	2025	+10.9 pp	+2.5 pp	19 of 209
GNI per person (Atlas method)current US$	4,670	2025	+790	+750	132 of 201
Trade% of GDP	41.8%	2025	+4.7 pp	−5.1 pp	157 of 183
Foreign direct investment, net inflows% of GDP	1.0%	2025	+0.4 pp	+0.2 pp	146 of 195
Central government debt% of GDP	73.5%	2015 *	+4.3 pp	−17.1 pp	–

Prices and jobs

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank	Trend
Inflation, consumer prices% annual	−4.8%	2025	−10.9 pp	−8.5 pp	179 of 180
Unemployment (modelled ILO estimate)% of labour force	4.0%	2025	−1.4 pp	−0.5 pp	119 of 186

People and health

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank
Populationpeople	21,756,000	2025	−163,000	+786,000	62 of 217
Population growth% annual	−0.7%	2025	−1.3 pp	−1.7 pp	206 of 217
Urban population% of total	20.5%	2025	+0.8 pp	+1.7 pp	212 of 217
Life expectancy at birthyears	77.7	2024	+1.0	+1.9	78 of 217
Infant mortalityper 1,000 live births	5.2	2024	−1.0	−2.5	146 of 196
Health spending% of GDP	3.7%	2023	0.0 pp	0.0 pp	165 of 193

Education

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank	Trend
Adult literacy rate% of people aged 15+	92.7%	2024	+0.5 pp	+0.2 pp	39 of 86
Government spending on education% of GDP	1.8%	2023	−0.2 pp	+0.3 pp	160 of 171

Access and infrastructure

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank	Trend
Internet users% of population	54.6%	2024	+22.6 pp	+44.1 pp	145 of 185
Access to electricity% of population	100.0%	2024	+0.2 pp	+7.3 pp	87 of 215

Inequality and poverty

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank	Trend
Gini index (inequality)index, 0 to 100	37.7	2019 *	−1.6	+1.6	–
Poverty headcount ratio% of population, at the World Bank international poverty line	2.7%	2019 *	−1.1 pp	−5.1 pp	–

Environment and energy

Indicator	Latest	Year	5-yr change	10-yr change	Rank	Trend
Renewable energy% of final energy consumption	48.8%	2021	+3.7 pp	−7.6 pp	51 of 212

* Latest figure is too old to be included in rankings or peer medians.

Advanced metrics

Indicator	Own history		Versus peers (latest)			Growth and catch-up
Indicator	10-yr mean	Z-score	Income group median	Region median	Volatility (σ)	10-yr CAGR	% of high-income median	10 yrs earlier
GDP per person (PPP)	13,946	+1.0	17,730	12,311	610	+0.9%	30%	30%
GDP growth	1.3%	+0.8	3.2%	5.6%	4.7	–	–	–
GDP per person growth	0.8%	+1.1	3.2%	5.8%	4.4	–	–	–
GNI per person (Atlas method)	3,966	+2.7	7,775	3,575	257	+1.8%	13%	14%
Trade	45.0%	−0.8	79.8%	44.4%	4.0	–	–	–
Foreign direct investment, net inflows	1.0%	−0.1	2.4%	0.7%	0.4	–	–	–
Central government debt	76.9%	−0.3	–	–	10.3	–	–	–
Inflation, consumer prices	10.0%	−1.0	3.3%	3.1%	14.7	–	–	–
Unemployment (modelled ILO estimate)	4.5%	−1.4	5.5%	4.1%	0.4	–	–	–
Population	21,731,400	+0.1	6,549,143	25,687,059	406,082	+0.4%	742%	798%
Population growth	0.5%	−1.9	0.5%	0.5%	0.7	–	–	–
Urban population	19.6%	+1.8	65.4%	39.1%	0.5	–	–	–
Life expectancy at birth	76.5	+2.0	74.5	74.1	0.6	–	–	–
Infant mortality	6.4	−1.5	11.2	18.0	0.8	–	–	–
Health spending	3.9%	−0.3	6.2%	4.0%	0.5	–	–	–
Adult literacy rate	92.3%	+1.4	94.8%	78.6%	0.3	–	–	–
Government spending on education	2.0%	−0.2	4.1%	3.9%	0.6	–	–	–
Internet users	31.4%	+1.7	82.0%	62.3%	13.8	–	–	–
Access to electricity	98.1%	+0.7	100.0%	100.0%	2.7	–	–	–
Renewable energy	50.6%	−0.4	13.8%	41.9%	4.4	–	–	–

How the advanced metrics are calculated. Change: latest value minus the value 5 or 10 years earlier, using the nearest observation within two years where the exact year is missing (percentage points for % series). CAGR: (latest ÷ earlier value)^(1 ÷ years between) − 1 over about 10 years, shown only for positive levels such as income and population. Volatility: standard deviation of the 10 observations before the latest. Z-score: how many standard deviations the latest value sits from that 10-year mean. Rank: among countries whose latest value is within 3 years of the newest year for that indicator; 1 is the highest value. Peer medians: the same group of recent values, split by income group, region and world. Share of high-income median: the country's value as a percentage of the median high-income country in the same year, compared with 10 years earlier. A rising share means the country is catching up; it is arithmetic about the past, not a forecast.

Compare Sri Lanka with other countries

Source. World Bank, World Development Indicators (datacatalog.worldbank.org), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-11-11. Some series are compiled by third parties such as the ILO and UN agencies and are subject to those sources' notes.

Changes made. ECONDEX has calculated all changes, growth rates, volatility, z-scores, ranks, peer medians and charts. The World Bank did not prepare, review or endorse them.

Read with care. The latest figure for each country is often one to three years old and different countries report different years. Some figures are modelled estimates. Ranks compare countries on values from different years and are not judgements of performance. Country names, groupings and boundaries follow World Bank usage and imply no view on the legal status of any territory.

Not advice. For information only. This is not investment, financial, legal or policy advice. Do not rely on it for decisions without checking the source.