Districts of Sri Lanka

Districts (Template:Langx, Template:Langx) are the second level administrative divisions of Sri Lanka, preceded by provinces. Sri Lanka has 25 districts organized into 9 provinces. Districts are further divided into a number of divisional secretariats (commonly known as D.S. divisions), which are in turn subdivided into 14,022 grama niladhari divisions. There are 331 DS divisions in Sri Lanka.

Each district is administered under a district secretary, who is appointed by the central government. The main tasks of the district secretariat involve coordinating communications and activities of the central government and divisional secretariats. The district secretariat is also responsible for implementing and monitoring development projects at the district level and assisting lower-level subdivisions in their activities, as well as revenue collection and coordination of elections in the district.

History

The country was first divided into several administrative units during the Anuradhapura Kingdom. The kingdom was divided into three provinces; Rajarata, Ruhuna and Malaya Rata. These were further subdivided into smaller units called rata.Template:Sfn Over time, the number of provinces increased, but the second-level administrative division continued to be the rata. However, with the country eventually being divided into more than one kingdom and with foreign colonial missions landing and taking parts of the country under their control, this structure began to change. The territory of the Kotte Kingdom was organized into four , which were further subdivided into forty . The had their own civil and military officials with a small militia. The Jaffna kingdom appears to have had a similar administrative structure to this with four provinces.Template:Sfn

When the Portuguese took over parts of the country after their arrival in 1505, they maintained more or less the same administrative structure followed by Sri Lankan rulers.Template:Sfn During the Dutch rule in the country, the terrain under their control was divided into three administrative divisions. These were subdivided into as in earlier systems.Template:Sfn The British initially continued this system,Template:Sfn but following reforms in 1796 to 1802, the country was divided according to ethnic composition.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This was abolished by the Colebrook–Cameron reforms in 1833 and a legislative council was created,Template:Sfn making the island a politically and administratively single unit. Five provinces were created, later expanded into nine, and these were subdivided into twenty-one districts. These districts were administered by officials known as Government Agents or Assistant Government Agents.Template:Sfn

In 1955, the district replaced the province as the country's main administrative unit.Template:Sfn The Ampara District was created in April 1961, followed by the creation of the Mullaitivu and Gampaha districts in September 1978 through a new constitution, which also reintroduced the provinces as the main administrative units. The newest district to be created was the Kilinochchi district in February 1984, and the current constitution states that the territory of Sri Lanka consists of 25 administrative districts. These districts may be subdivided or amalgamated by a resolution of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.

Districts

All population data is from the most recent census of Sri Lanka, in 2012.

District	Area map	Province	District capital	Land area in km2 (mi2)	Inland water area in km2 (mi2)	Total area in km 2 (mi2)	Population (2012)	Population density per km2 (per mi2)Template:Efn
Ampara	Area map of Ampara District, located along the east by south and south east coast and projecting into the interior of the country at the northern border, in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Eastern	Ampara				649,402
Anuradhapura	Area map of Anuradhapura District, located somewhat to the north of the centre of the country, in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon North Central	Anuradhapura				860,575
Badulla	Area map of Badulla District which has its northern border near the centre of the country and extends to the south, located in the Uva Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Uva	Badulla				815,405
Batticaloa	Area map of Batticaloa District, located along the east by north coast, in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Eastern	Batticaloa				526,567
Colombo	Area map of Colombo District, roughly rectangular in shape and extending inwards from the west south west coast in the Western Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Western	Colombo				2,324,349
Galle	Area map of Galle District, converging inwards from the south west coast, in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Southern	Galle				1,063,334
Gampaha	Area map of Gampaha District, extending inwards from the west by south west coast in a rough square shape, in the Western Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Western	Gampaha				2,304,833
Hambantota	Area map of Hambantota District, lying along the coast from south to south east, in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Southern	Hambantota				599,903
Jaffna	Area map of Jaffna District, in the peninsula to the north, in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Northern	Jaffna				583,882
Kalutara	Area map of Kalutara District, extending inwards from the south west by west coast, in the Western Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Western	Kalutara				1,221,948
Kandy	Area map of Kandy District, at the centre of the country with its south western boundary extending to the south, in the Central Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Central	Kandy				1,375,382
Kegalle	Area map of Kegalle District, roughly oval in shape is located to the south east of the centre of the country, in the Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Sabaragamuwa	Kegalle				840,648
Kilinochchi	Area map of Kilinochchi District, along the northern coast of the mainland and south of the Jaffna peninsula, in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Northern	Kilinochchi				113,510
Kurunegala	Area map of Kurunegala District, to the west of the centre of the country with its northern border extending towards the north west, in the North Western Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon North Western	Kurunegala				1,618,465
Mannar	Area map of Mannar District, along the north western coast with eastern border extending towards the interior, also including a large island roughly oval in shape, in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Northern	Mannar				99,570
Matale	Area map of Matale District, located immediately north of the middle of the country, roughly the shape of a letter "C" and located in the Central Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Central	Matale				484,531
Matara	Area map of Matara District, roughly rectangular in shape and extending inwards from the southern coast, in the Southern Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Southern	Matara				814,048
Monaragala	Area map of Monaragala District, located east of the centre of the country, has its south eat border extending towards the west, in the Uva Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Uva	Monaragala				451,058
Mullaitivu	Area map of Mullaitivu District, extending to the west from the north by east coast in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Northern	Mullaitivu				92,238
Nuwara Eliya	Area map of Nuwara Eliya District, located immediately south of the middle of the country and running roughly south west to north east, in the Central Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Central	Nuwara Eliya				711,644
Polonnaruwa	Area map of Polonnaruwa District, roughly square in shape, located at the middle from north east of the centre of the country and south west of the north eastern coast, in the North Central Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon North Central	Polonnaruwa				406,088
Puttalam	Area map of Puttalam District, lying along the western coast, in the North Western Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon North Western	Puttalam				762,396
Ratnapura	Area map of Ratnapura District, some distance from the south western coast with its western and southern borders converging towards the north west, in the Sabaragamuwa Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Sabaragamuwa	Ratnapura				1,088,007
Trincomalee	Area map of Trincomalee District, along the north eastern coast with its south western border extending inwards, in the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Eastern	Trincomalee				379,541
Vavuniya	Area map of Vavuniya District, located in the middle of the northern half of the country, running roughly in a south west—north east direction, in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka	Template:Flagicon Northern	Vavuniya				172,115
Total							20,359,439

See also

• ISO 3166-2:LK