Gender ratio in Sri Lanka

In 2026, Sri Lanka is projected to have a noticeably female-skewed sex ratio of 93.68 males per 100 females, indicating that females outnumber males by a significant margin. Based on the overall female-to-male ratio, Sri Lanka ranks 42nd out of 237 countries and territories worldwide and sixth out of 51 in Asia, where it places second in the South Asia region behind Nepal. Its gender ratio is comparable to that of Bulgaria, Poland, and Romania.

There are 11,292,879 (11.29 million) males and 12,055,435 (12.06 million) females in Sri Lanka, resulting in a female surplus of about 763K people. In percentage terms, females make up 51.63% of the population, compared to 48.37% males. Sri Lanka ranks 35th globally in terms of absolute female surplus and sixth within Asia.

In Sri Lanka, the male-to-female ratio has undergone a significant long-term decline. It dropped from 119.08 males per 100 females in 1950 to the point where women began to outnumber men in 1996. This trend is expected to continue, with the ratio projected to fall further to around 93.63 males per 100 females by 2030.

The sex ratio at birth in Sri Lanka is approximately 104.4 male births for every 100 female births. Historically, this ratio has remained relatively stable, fluctuating within a narrow range—from about 103.8 in 1974 to 104.7 in 2005—indicating only minor variation over time.

As of 2026, Sri Lanka has more males than females in age groups under 30. The highest male-to-female ratio is found in the 00–04 age group, with 104.28 males for every 100 females. For children under 15, the sex ratio is 104.15, while in the working-age population (15–64), the ratio is slightly male-skewed at 95.58 males per 100 females. However, the ratio drops significantly in those over 65, with only 70.59 males for every 100 females. Among the elderly, women greatly outnumber men, with females outnumber males by roughly a 2:1 ratio of those in the 85–89 age group, and nearly 3-to-1 ratio of women to men among centenarians.