With a continuing decline in her population growth, Sri Lanka’s total number of inhabitants by 2027 will be close to 23.1 million, said professor emeritus (demography) Indralal de Silva of University of Colombo.
The global population growth is 134 million per year, he said, adding however that the island’s figure could have been 12 births per 1,000 between 2019 and 2023.
Prof. de Silva said migration and postponement of marriage by the youths as well as fatalities to coronavirus impacted negatively on population growth.
According to a survey carried out in 2019, more than 85 per cent of those aged between 15 and 24 years have had love affairs but less than half of them proceeded to get married, he added.
