Major towns of Sri Lanka - district capitals, largest cities
Seema Malakaya in Beira Lake in Colombo
Asked, which are the most important towns of Sri Lanka, the answer that comes first to one's mind is: Colombo. Situated on the western coast, Colombo is Sri Lanka's by far most populous city and contains the seat of the head of state, the president. So Colombo indisputably is in a top position on the list of Sri Lanka's major cities.
article content: provincial capitals - district capitals - biggest cities - municipal & urban councils - image selection
After having nominated Colombo, let's select one populous or culturally or economically significant town as proxy of each other part of the island (resp. of each cardinal direction) for our shortlist of the island's most significant cities, namely: Kandy represents center of the island for sure, undeniably Galle is number one in the south, definitely Jaffna is predominant in the north, and for representing the east, if we have to choose one of the three largest cities in that province, we suggest to take Trincomalee, because it's the island's best and largest natural harbour by far and therefore it has played a major role in almost all periods of the island's history right from the beginning. By the way, during the recently overcome period of civil war the armed Tamil secessionists intended to make Trincomalee, not Jaffna, the capital of their imagined future state. More important than that: Trincomalee is a big name on the entire subcontinent, because it harbours the island's most famous Hindu temple dedicated to Lord Shiva. So there is enough reason to include Trincomalee in the list of top 5 major cities of Sri Lanka, notwithstanding that it's not the largest town in the east of the island.
Provincial Capitals of Sri Lanka
This answer, choosing Colombo and Kandy and Galle and Jaffna and Trincomalee as the top 5 major cities of Sri Lanka, has the good luck that each of the listed towns is also a provincial capital, namely of the Western Province, the Central Province, the Southern Province, the Northern Province, and the Eastern Province respectively. Our choice of those five is even luckier, as these are exactly the first five provinces that came to existence administrationally (under British rule), before they were divided into further parts.
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So it could make sense to continue our list of major cities of Sri Lanka by adding today's other four provincial capitals. There is good reason to count Anuradhapura, capital of the North Central Province, among the nation's top 6, because no other town served longer as the island's capital - viz. 1300 of 2300 years of Sri Lanka's recorded history -, and for the same ancient period Anuradhapura was by far the largest settlement on the island, then a population center comparable to what Colombo is now. Arguably, Anuradhapura is the major city at the root of the Sinhalese civilization and, besides Kandy, one of the two most sacred cities of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. So let's take it on the list of our top 6. The three remaining provincial capitals are Ratnapura, literally the "gem city", of Sarabagamuwa Province, the major source of gems on the "island of gems", Kurunegala of the North West Province, which was a short time capital in the Middle Ages, and the hillcountry city Badulla of Uva Province, the latter province being a remote inland region in the southeast.
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Sri Lanka's District capitals sorted by population size
After having listed the nine provincial capitals of Sri Lanka as the island nation's most important administrational towns, we should continue by then listing the district capitals. (The districts are named after their respective capitals, by the way.) Let's do it in the form of a list, sorted by population size of the district capitals:
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1. Colombo in Western Province
2. Kandy in Central Province 3. Galle in Southern Province 4. Matara in Southern Province 5. Batticaloa in Eastern Province 6. Jaffna in Northern Province 7. Gampaha in Western Province 8. Anuradhapura in North Central Province |
less than 50,000 inhabitants (2012 census):
9. Trincomalee in Eastern Province 10. Badulla in Uva Province 11. Ratnapura in Sabaragamuwa Province 12. Puttalam in North West Province 13. Ampara in Eastern Province 14. Matale in Central Province 15. Vavuniya in Northern Province 16. Mulaittivu in Northern Province |
17. Kalutara in Western Province
18. Mannar in Northern Province 19. Kurunegala in North West Province 20. Polonnaruwa in North Central Province 21. Nuwara Eliya in Central Province 22. Kilinochchi in Northern Province 23. Kegalle in Sabaragamuwa Province 24. Moneragala in Uva Province 25. Hambantota in Southern Province |
The ranking might differ slightly when considering different censuses. And the ranking would even differ very much, if one counted the entire population of the metropolitan area (division) instead of only the core (urban) area of a city. Regarding the size of the respective divisions, Kalutara and Ratnapura would rank among the top 8.
Sri Lanka's most populated cities - 8 above 100,000 inhabitants
However, listing the district capitals, which are administrationally the most relevant towns of the nation, is obviously not the full answer to the question: What are the major cities of Sri Lanka? Most readers will consider population size to be more relevant than administrational function. Then the picture is a different one. For example, in the Eastern Province Kalmunai is the largest city, more populous than each of the three eastern district capitals, double in size when compared to the provincial capital, Trincomalee. And there is also a cultural reason to count Kalmunai among Sri Lanka's major cities, as it is by far the largest Muslim town on the entire island, and Muslims, besides Sinhalese and Tamil, form one of the three communities represented in the national flag.
Even the simple question, which are the most populated towns of Sri Lanka, is not easy to answer, for two reasons. Firstly, there is the abovementioned difference between the city's urban area and the same city's so-called division, which encompasses also villages in the vicinity. To give an example, Kegalle, situated between Colombo and Kandy, has an urban population of only 16,000, but a metropolitan population of more than 90,000 people in its division. Secondly, most travellers would consider Colombo on a list of major cities to be only one single big town, stretching from the river mouth of Kelani Ganga till Mount Lavinia at least (like most Sri Lankans would do), maybe even further till Moratuwa or Panadura (like foreign guests driving along the A2 would certainly guess). However, the metropolitan region of Colombo, with a population of altogether more than 2 million inhabitants, counting for more than 10% of the entire nation, is divided into several distinct municipalities. In other words: Colombo is not one city, but many, at least seven on the list of major cities, when "major" means "population size". One of them is the suburb of Kotte Sri Jayawardenepura, where the parliament is located. Officially, the municipality of Kotte Sri Jayawardenepura is the legislative capital of Sri Lanka. So, strictly speaking, Colombo's city proper is not Sri Lanka's capital, since it's a different municipality than that of Kotte Sri Jayawardenepura.
Due to the overwhelming importance of the Colombo metropolitan region as the dense population center of Sri Lanka, it should not come as a too big surprise that 7 of Sri Lanka's 8 largest municipalities (seven of eight!) belong to the larger urban area of Colombo. They actually appear more like quarters of Colombo than distinct cities. They are Colombo in a narrow sense, the city proper being the nation's most populated municipality, then next in population size Kaduwela to the very east of the agglomeration, then Dehiwala - Mount Lavinia in the south, then Moratuwa further south, then Kotte Sri Jayawardenepura in the east, and then Maharagama and Kesbewa in the very southeast of the metropolitan region.
Colombo Municipal Council, which corresponds the city proper and represents around one third of the people of the metropolitan area, includes several of Sri Lanka's most renowned neighbourhoods, namely Colombo Fort (Colombo 1), the adjacent Pettah Market (Colombo 11), Galle Face, Slave Island (both Colombo 2), Havelock Town (Colombo 5), Cinnamon Gardens (Colombo 7), and Bloemendahl (Colombo 13).
Actually, Sri Lanka's only municipality in the list of top 8 most populous cities that does not belong to the continuous urban area usually called "Colombo" is, maybe as a surprise, Negombo. (One could consider Negombo belonging to the agglomeration of Colombo, but most Sri Lankans would not regard this assertion as correct.) Moreover, believe it or not, according to the 2012 census Negombo (and not Kandy!) is Sri Lanka's only big city which is located outside the metropolitan region of Colombo - a "big city" in the sense of being populated by more than 100,000 urban inhabitants. It makes sense indeed to count Negombo, which is not a district capital, among the major cities of Sri Lanka. Culturally, it's the core area of the island's Christian population, though not a bishop's see. And Negombo is situated even closer to Sri Lanka's by far most important international airport than Colombo town itself and therefore an important industrial and commercial and touristic hub, all the more as Negombo serves as the headquarter of Lanka Excursions Holidays, the leading provider of thought-through Sri Lanka tourist information with a wink.
Even the simple question, which are the most populated towns of Sri Lanka, is not easy to answer, for two reasons. Firstly, there is the abovementioned difference between the city's urban area and the same city's so-called division, which encompasses also villages in the vicinity. To give an example, Kegalle, situated between Colombo and Kandy, has an urban population of only 16,000, but a metropolitan population of more than 90,000 people in its division. Secondly, most travellers would consider Colombo on a list of major cities to be only one single big town, stretching from the river mouth of Kelani Ganga till Mount Lavinia at least (like most Sri Lankans would do), maybe even further till Moratuwa or Panadura (like foreign guests driving along the A2 would certainly guess). However, the metropolitan region of Colombo, with a population of altogether more than 2 million inhabitants, counting for more than 10% of the entire nation, is divided into several distinct municipalities. In other words: Colombo is not one city, but many, at least seven on the list of major cities, when "major" means "population size". One of them is the suburb of Kotte Sri Jayawardenepura, where the parliament is located. Officially, the municipality of Kotte Sri Jayawardenepura is the legislative capital of Sri Lanka. So, strictly speaking, Colombo's city proper is not Sri Lanka's capital, since it's a different municipality than that of Kotte Sri Jayawardenepura.
Due to the overwhelming importance of the Colombo metropolitan region as the dense population center of Sri Lanka, it should not come as a too big surprise that 7 of Sri Lanka's 8 largest municipalities (seven of eight!) belong to the larger urban area of Colombo. They actually appear more like quarters of Colombo than distinct cities. They are Colombo in a narrow sense, the city proper being the nation's most populated municipality, then next in population size Kaduwela to the very east of the agglomeration, then Dehiwala - Mount Lavinia in the south, then Moratuwa further south, then Kotte Sri Jayawardenepura in the east, and then Maharagama and Kesbewa in the very southeast of the metropolitan region.
Colombo Municipal Council, which corresponds the city proper and represents around one third of the people of the metropolitan area, includes several of Sri Lanka's most renowned neighbourhoods, namely Colombo Fort (Colombo 1), the adjacent Pettah Market (Colombo 11), Galle Face, Slave Island (both Colombo 2), Havelock Town (Colombo 5), Cinnamon Gardens (Colombo 7), and Bloemendahl (Colombo 13).
Actually, Sri Lanka's only municipality in the list of top 8 most populous cities that does not belong to the continuous urban area usually called "Colombo" is, maybe as a surprise, Negombo. (One could consider Negombo belonging to the agglomeration of Colombo, but most Sri Lankans would not regard this assertion as correct.) Moreover, believe it or not, according to the 2012 census Negombo (and not Kandy!) is Sri Lanka's only big city which is located outside the metropolitan region of Colombo - a "big city" in the sense of being populated by more than 100,000 urban inhabitants. It makes sense indeed to count Negombo, which is not a district capital, among the major cities of Sri Lanka. Culturally, it's the core area of the island's Christian population, though not a bishop's see. And Negombo is situated even closer to Sri Lanka's by far most important international airport than Colombo town itself and therefore an important industrial and commercial and touristic hub, all the more as Negombo serves as the headquarter of Lanka Excursions Holidays, the leading provider of thought-through Sri Lanka tourist information with a wink.
Municipal Councils, Urban Councils, Divisional Secretariats
Apart from administrational relevance and cultural significance and economical weight and population size, there is another criterion of ranking cities in Sri Lanka, namely three different commune statuses, namely municipal councils and urban councils and divisional secretariats.
Sri Lanka has 24 municipal councils. Those of them that are towns not yet mentioned above are: Dambulla in Matale District, Bandarawela in Badulla District, and Akkaraipattu in Ampara District.
Apart from the municipal councils, there are 41 urban councils in Sri Lanka. For example, the district capitals of Trincomalee, Ampara, Kalutara, Puttalam, Vavuniya and Mannar are urban councils, not municipal councils. Some urban councils are more populous than some municipal councils. To name the most important example of a large urban council: Katunayake encompasses Colombo International Airport. Beruwela and Hikkaduwa, the by far largest beach resorts between Colombo and Galle in Sri Lanka's classical beach holiday region, and also the two largest beach resorts on the southern coast, Weligama and Tangalle, and Haputale and Hatton-Dickoya, two big names of the tea regions in the central highlands, are urban councils.
Among the third category of communes, divisional secretariats, are some touristically significant towns, too. For example, Mihintale and Mahiyangana are among the most sacred Buddhist places in Sri Lanka. Kataragama is Sri Lanka's most renowned multireligious pilgrimage destination, sacred to aboriginal Weddas and Tamil Hindus and Dinhalese Buddhists and Sufistic Muslims alike. The divisional secretariat of Ella is among the top 3 tourist destinations in the central highlands. Also Sri Lanka's most prestigious beach resort, Bentota, is a divisional secretariat. The divisional secretariat of Pottuvil, which includes Arugam Bay, covers almost all tourist facilities of the southeast coast, Sri Lanka's major surfing destination. Last not least, when listing Sri Lanka's major cities, we must not forget the remote and rural town of Bibile, the gateway to aboriginal Wedda villages and the area of Sri Lanka's most tasteful oranges - and, of course, the hometown of our appreciated drone pilot, Isuka Tehan.
Consequentially, there are no sufficiently objective criteria to determine the rankings of Sri Lanka's major towns. But we hope, this overview might have provided some insights.
Sri Lanka has 24 municipal councils. Those of them that are towns not yet mentioned above are: Dambulla in Matale District, Bandarawela in Badulla District, and Akkaraipattu in Ampara District.
Apart from the municipal councils, there are 41 urban councils in Sri Lanka. For example, the district capitals of Trincomalee, Ampara, Kalutara, Puttalam, Vavuniya and Mannar are urban councils, not municipal councils. Some urban councils are more populous than some municipal councils. To name the most important example of a large urban council: Katunayake encompasses Colombo International Airport. Beruwela and Hikkaduwa, the by far largest beach resorts between Colombo and Galle in Sri Lanka's classical beach holiday region, and also the two largest beach resorts on the southern coast, Weligama and Tangalle, and Haputale and Hatton-Dickoya, two big names of the tea regions in the central highlands, are urban councils.
Among the third category of communes, divisional secretariats, are some touristically significant towns, too. For example, Mihintale and Mahiyangana are among the most sacred Buddhist places in Sri Lanka. Kataragama is Sri Lanka's most renowned multireligious pilgrimage destination, sacred to aboriginal Weddas and Tamil Hindus and Dinhalese Buddhists and Sufistic Muslims alike. The divisional secretariat of Ella is among the top 3 tourist destinations in the central highlands. Also Sri Lanka's most prestigious beach resort, Bentota, is a divisional secretariat. The divisional secretariat of Pottuvil, which includes Arugam Bay, covers almost all tourist facilities of the southeast coast, Sri Lanka's major surfing destination. Last not least, when listing Sri Lanka's major cities, we must not forget the remote and rural town of Bibile, the gateway to aboriginal Wedda villages and the area of Sri Lanka's most tasteful oranges - and, of course, the hometown of our appreciated drone pilot, Isuka Tehan.
Consequentially, there are no sufficiently objective criteria to determine the rankings of Sri Lanka's major towns. But we hope, this overview might have provided some insights.
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