Religion
Most Sinhalese are Buddhist; most Tamils are Hindu; and the Moors and Malays are mostly Muslim. Sizeable minorities of both Sinhalese and Tamils are Christians, most of whom are Roman Catholic. The Burgher population is mostly Roman Catholic or Presbyterian. The Veddahs have Animist and Buddhist practices. The 1978 constitution, while assuring freedom of religion, grants primacy to Buddhism.
| Year | Buddhist | Hindu | Muslim | Christian | Others | Total | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | No. | ||
| 1881 Census | 1,698,100 | 61.53% | 593,600 | 21.51% | 197,800 | 7.17% | 268,000 | 9.71% | 2,300 | 0.08% | 2,759,800 | |
| 1891 Census | 1,877,000 | 62.40% | 615,900 | 20.48% | 212,000 | 7.05% | 302,100 | 10.04% | 800 | 0.03% | 3,007,800 | |
| 1901 Census | 2,141,400 | 60.06% | 826,800 | 23.19% | 246,100 | 6.90% | 349,200 | 9.79% | 2,500 | 0.07% | 3,566,000 | |
| 1911 Census | 2,474,200 | 60.25% | 938,300 | 22.85% | 283,600 | 6.91% | 409,200 | 9.96% | 1,100 | 0.03% | 4,106,400 | |
| 1921 Census | 2,769,800 | 61.57% | 982,100 | 21.83% | 302,500 | 6.72% | 443,400 | 9.86% | 800 | 0.02% | 4,498,600 | |
| 1931 Estimate | 3,266,600 | 61.55% | 1,166,900 | 21.99% | 354,200 | 6.67% | 518,100 | 9.76% | 1,100 | 0.02% | 5,306,900 | |
| 1946 Census | 4,294,900 | 64.51% | 1,320,400 | 19.83% | 436,600 | 6.56% | 603,200 | 9.06% | 2,200 | 0.03% | 6,657,300 | |
| 1953 Census | 5,209,400 | 64.33% | 1,610,500 | 19.89% | 541,500 | 6.69% | 724,400 | 8.95% | 12,100 | 0.15% | 8,097,900 | |
| 1963 Census | 7,003,300 | 66.18% | 1,958,400 | 18.51% | 724,000 | 6.84% | 884,900 | 8.36% | 11,400 | 0.11% | 10,582,000 | |
| 1971 Census | 8,536,800 | 67.27% | 2,238,600 | 17.64% | 901,700 | 7.11% | 1,004,300 | 7.91% | 8,400 | 0.07% | 12,689,800 | |
| 1981 Census | 10,288,300 | 69.30% | 2,297,800 | 15.48% | 1,121,700 | 7.56% | 1,130,600 | 7.62% | 8,300 | 0.06% | 14,846,700 | |
| 2001 Census | ||||||||||||
| 2012 Census | 14,222,844 | 70.19% | 2,554,606 | 12.61% | 1,967,227 | 9.71% | 1,509,606 | 7.45% | 9,440 | 0.05% | 20,263,723 | |
Read more about this topic: Ethnic Groups In Sri Lanka
Famous quotes containing the word religion:
“Unless criticism refuses to take itself quite so seriously or at least to permit its readers not to, it will inevitably continue to reflect the finicky canons of the genteel tradition and the depressing pieties of the Culture Religion of Modernism.”
—Leslie Fiedler (b. 1917)
“There is no religion in which everyday life is not considered a prison; there is no philosophy or ideology that does not think that we live in alienation.”
—Eugène Ionesco (b. 1912)
“All Protestantism, even the most cold and passive, is a sort of dissent. But the religion most prevalent in our northern colonies is a refinement on the principle of resistance; it is the dissidence of dissent, and the Protestantism of the Protestant religion.”
—Edmund Burke (1729–1797)