Photo: Yakoob Nowfer · CC BY SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Sri Lanka
Tamil, Sinhala · LKR · Indian Standard Time · Updated
How it scores for living there
- 26%Cost of livingRated 5 of 5 for living there, ideal
- 36%Income taxRated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- AppliesCapital gainsRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 8MbpsInternetRated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 1.14Doctors /1,000Rated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 23PM2.5 ug/m3Rated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 3.3Homicide /100kRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 77.7Life expectancyRated 3 of 5 for living there, workable
- 55%People onlineRated 1 of 5 for living there, bad
- 32Corruption indexRated 2 of 5 for living there, poor
- 12of 12Mild monthsRated 5 of 5 for living there, ideal
Facts, not judgements
- UTC+5:30Time zone
- LKRCurrency
- Tamil+1Language
- D, G, MPower plug
- 2.0mVisitors in 2019
Colour says whether a figure is good for someone moving in, not whether it is high: cheap is green and expensive is red. Every coloured box carries the reason for its colour, the bar under it repeats the score as a width, and boxes with no data are not drawn.
Nomads in Sri Lanka
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Who can help you in Sri Lanka
Vetted partners for the move: immigration and tax lawyers, relocation services, banking and eSIM, guides and local experts. One Gold partner and up to three standard listings per country.
Climate and cost by city
Average monthly temperature and rainfall from Open-Meteo ERA5 (2019-2023 mean, CC BY 4.0). Sea surface temperature from Open-Meteo Marine. Price level from the World Bank ICP survey, same-year pairing, omitted where the survey does not cover the country.
Cost of living and lifestyle
Day to day, Sri Lanka costs about 26% of the US level, on a World Bank income of $17k per person (PPP, 2025).
That percentage is measured against your country, not against ours. It follows the country picker in the header, or your account if you are signed in. With neither, it falls back to the United States, which is the 100 of the World Bank index, and the sentence says so.
World Bank ICP price level (US=100) and GNI per capita PPP, CC BY 4.0. It is a national average: a capital runs above it and a small town below it.
Getting to Sri Lanka
Its main airport has non-stop service to 38 airports in the OpenFlights route database.
| From | Routing | Flight time | Cheapest fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dubai | Non-stop | 4h 30m | €286 |
| London | Non-stop | 10h 00m | €1450 |
| Frankfurt | Non-stop | 10h 00m | €745 |
| London | Non-stop | 10h 25m | €835 |
| Sydney | Non-stop | 10h 55m | €1831 |
| Paris | Non-stop | 12h 55m | €877 |
Airports and non-stop routes from OpenFlights (Open Database License). Fares and flight times are cached one-way economy prices from Travelpayouts, the cheapest seen recently rather than a live quote or an average. They move; treat them as an order of magnitude.
What to see in Sri Lanka
Ordered by how many people looked each place up over the last twelve months, so the list is measured interest and not our taste.
bay
Bay of Bengal
19,582 readers a month look it up
mountain
Adam's Peak
6,994 readers a month look it up
UNESCOBuddhist temple
Dambulla cave temple
4,944 readers a month look it up
temple
Koneswaram Temple
3,596 readers a month look it up
Buddhist temple
Ruwanweli Maha Saya
3,434 readers a month look it up
tower
Lotus Tower
3,145 readers a month look it up
national park
Yala National Park
3,051 readers a month look it up
bay
Gulf of Mannar
2,835 readers a month look it up
Photo credits
- Bay of Bengal: Mgiganteus, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Wikimedia Commons
- Adam's Peak: Rehman Abubakr, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Dambulla cave temple: No machine-readable author provided. Jolle~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims), CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Koneswaram Temple: Dschen Reinecke, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Ruwanweli Maha Saya: KennyOMG, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Lotus Tower: Mohamed Rilwan1210, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Yala National Park: Ranmith Welikala, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
- Gulf of Mannar: NASA, PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Wikimedia Commons
The practical basics
- Local time…Indian Standard Time, Asia/Colombo
- CurrencyLKRISO 4217
- LanguagesTamil, Sinhala
- PlugsD, G, M230/400 V 50 Hz
- Safe tap water47%of people on a safely managed supply, World Bank 2024
- UK travel adviceNo blanket warningFCDO, reviewed 2026-05-26
- Population21.8mWorld Bank
Currency codes ISO 4217; plugs and voltage from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0); time zone and flag from the countries-states-cities database (ODbL 1.0); travel advice from the UK FCDO (Open Government Licence v3).
How many people visit
Sri Lanka logged 540,000 international arrivals in 2020, the last year the World Bank series covers. That is a pandemic year and it is not what a normal year looks like: in 2019 the same series counted 2.0 million.
World Bank indicator ST.INT.ARVL, international tourism arrivals, CC BY 4.0. Arrivals count trips, not people: the same visitor twice in a year counts twice.
Tax in Sri Lanka, in one line
Personal income tax runs up to 36 per cent. Capital gains: 10% (on gains from realisation of investment assets).
Tax figures are compiled by us and are being re-verified against primary sources. General information, not tax advice.
Data: World Bank, Open-Meteo, M-Lab, Wikidata and Wikimedia Commons, under open licences. General information, not tax or legal advice.