Administrative divisions

Administrative divisions[edit]

Bay of Bengal

Palk Strait

Northern Province

Gulf of
Mannar

North Central Province

North Western
Province

Eastern
Province

Central
Province

Uva Province

Western
Province

Sabaragamuwa
Province

Southern Province

Indian Ocean

Main articles: Provinces of Sri Lanka, Districts of Sri Lanka and Divisional Secretariats of Sri Lanka

See also: List of cities in Sri Lanka and List of towns in Sri Lanka

For administrative purposes, Sri Lanka is divided into nine provinces^[194] and twenty-five districts.^[195]
Provinces There have been provinces (Sinhala: පළාතTamil: மாகாணம்) in Sri Lanka since the 19th century, but they had no legal status until 1987 when the 13th Amendment to the 1978 constitution established provincial councils after several decades of increasing demand for a decentralisation of the Government of Sri Lanka.^[196] Each provincial council is an autonomous body not under the authority of any Ministry. Some of its functions had been undertaken by central government ministries, departments, corporations, and statutory authorities,^[196] but authority over land and police is not as a rule given to provincial councils.^[197][198] Between 1989 and 2006, the Northern and Eastern provinces were temporarily merged to form the North-East Province.^[199][200] Prior to 1987, all administrative tasks for the provinces were handled by a district-based civil service which had been in place since colonial times. Now each province is administered by a directly elected provincial council:

Administrative Divisions of Sri Lanka
Province	Capital	Area (km²)	Area (sq mi)	Population
Central	Kandy	5,674	2,191	2,556,774
Eastern	Trincomalee	9,996	3,859	1,547,377
North Central	Anuradhapura	10,714	4,137	1,259,421
Northern	Jaffna	8,884	3,430	1,060,023
North Western	Kurunegala	7,812	3,016	2,372,185
Sabaragamuwa	Ratnapura	4,902	1,893	1,919,478
Southern	Galle	5,559	2,146	2,465,626
Uva	Badulla	8,488	3,277	1,259,419
Western	Colombo	3,709	1,432	5,837,294

Districts and local authorities Sri Lanka is also divided into 25 districts (Sinhala: දිස්ත්‍රි‌ක්‌ක sing. දිස්ත්‍රික්කයTamil: மாவட்டம்).^[201] Each district is administered under a District Secretariat. The districts are further subdivided into 256 divisional secretariats, and these, in turn, to approximately 14,008 Grama Niladhari divisions.^[202] The Districts are known in Sinhala as Disa and in Tamil as Māwaddam. Originally, a Disa (usually rendered into English as Dissavony) was a duchy, notably Matale and Uva. A government agent, who is known as District Secretary, administers a district.
There are three other types of local authorities: Municipal Councils (18), Urban councils (13) and Pradeshiya Sabha, also called Pradesha Sabhai (256).^[203] Local authorities were originally based on feudal counties named korale and rata, and were formerly known as 'D.R.O. divisions' after the 'Divisional Revenue Officer'.^[204] Later the D.R.O.s became 'Assistant Government Agents' and the divisions were known as 'A.G.A. divisions'. These Divisional Secretariats are currently administered by a 'Divisional Secretary'.