(COLOMBO) – Sri Lanka has recorded a significant drop in the annual birth rate while deaths have increased, a senior official with the Registrar General’s Department told the media.
The annual births were around 325,000 before 2020, but they have now decreased to around 280,000 in 2023, Senior Deputy Registrar General, Attorney-at-Law Lakshika Ganepola said.
Ganepola said that annual deaths have increased to around 180,000, while the number was around 140,000 before 2020 adding that this trend will adversely affect the country’s population growth.
Independent observers attributed this devlopment primarily to family planning programs introduced by the UNFPA in Sri Lanka from the early 1980s, where payments were made to those undergoing vasectomies and hysterectomies resulting in both males and females undergoing those procedures voluntarily to collect the stipend.
The majority of those who participated in these programs were from underprivileged Sinhalese and Tamil families.
