Demographics of Sri Lanka - Religion

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.

Population of Sri Lanka by religion 1881 to 2012
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:  Demographics Of Sri Lanka

Famous quotes containing the word religion:

    A man has no religion who has not slowly and painfully gathered one together, adding to it, shaping it; and one’s religion is never complete and final, it seems, but must always be undergoing modification.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    To sum up:
    1. The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making 10,000 revolutions a minute.
    2. Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it.
    3. Religion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride.
    —H.L. (Henry Lewis)

    A religion so cheerless, a philosophy so sorrowful, could never have succeeded with the masses of mankind if presented only as a system of metaphysics. Buddhism owed its success to its catholic spirit and its beautiful morality.
    W. Winwood Reade (1838–1875)