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Population Review

World Bank · 14 metrics compared

India vs Sri Lanka

Source·World Bank Open DataUpdated·Reviewed by·Population Review Data Team

India and Sri Lanka compared across 14 demographic and economic metrics. Sri Lanka leads in 5 of the comparable categories.

4

India wins

5

Sri Lanka wins

MetricIndiaSri Lanka
Population1,438,069,59622,037,000
GDP Per Capita$2,530$3,799
Life Expectancy72.077.5
Population Growth Rate0.88-0.65
Urban Population35.1%20.1%
Fertility Rate1.981.97
Infant Mortality (per 1000)24.55.3
Literacy Rate81.7%92.7%
Unemployment Rate4.2%4.5%
Internet Users55.9%48.3%
CO2 Per Capita (tonnes)--
Physicians Per 1000-1.14
Gini Index25.537.7
Forest Area24.5%34.0%

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Frequently Asked Questions

India has a population of 1,438,069,596 compared to Sri Lanka's 22,037,000.

Across the metrics compared, India leads in 4 categories while Sri Lanka leads in 5. However, "better" depends on what matters most to you, income, cost of living, education, climate, and personal preferences all play a role.

International data from the World Bank Open Data API. Population and economic data are latest available estimates.

Comparison based on World Bank Open Data. Most recent available year used for each metric. Green highlighting indicates favorable values where applicable.

Comparing India and Sri Lanka on U.S. population demographics requires lining up the underlying the U.S. Census Bureau ACS and decennial files data side by side. The table above runs the comparison on the canonical fields; the narrative below identifies the factor or factors that drive the most meaningful difference between the two.

Practical use of the comparison: read the data above, then drill into the individual India and Sri Lanka detail pages for the underlying breakdown. A pairwise comparison answers the relative question; the per-entity pages answer the absolute question.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS, 2026.