Population: 20.8 million
Area: 65'610 km2
Density: 286 inhabitants per square km.
Unemployment: 12%
Currency: Srilankan Rupee

To understand the ongoing problems is to understand Sri Lanka which is made up of different ethnic groups:
- 74% of the population are Sinhalese and, in general, Buddhist. Their language is Sinhala.
- 18,1% are Tamils, or Tamouls, who originally came from the South of India. They are mostly Hindus, speak Tamil and are divided into two groups, the Ceylonese Tamils, who settled thousands of years ago on the island and Indian Tamils, «imported» during colonisation to work on the coffee and tea plantations.
- 7.1% are Muslim
- 0.8% are merchants (descended from European’s)) and others. The two groups speak Tamil or Sinhala.
- 8% of the population are Christian.