Fertility & birth rates in Sri Lanka and United Kingdom

Fertility rate in Sri Lanka vs United Kingdom chart

According to the latest available data on birth rates, the fertility rate in Sri Lanka was 1.97 children per woman in 2023, compared to 1.56 in the United Kingdom in 2023. The replacement level is considered to be 2.1 children per woman.

Check Sri Lanka vs the United Kingdom population clock for a dynamic visualization of the changing population.

The chart below showcases historical changes in the birth rates.

Table

Year	Fertility rate
	Sri Lanka	United Kingdom
1960	5.35	2.69
1961	5.24	2.78
1962	5.18	2.86
1963	5.12	2.88
1964	5.06	2.93
1965	4.93	2.86
1966	4.83	2.78
1967	4.79	2.68
1968	4.66	2.6
1969	4.5	2.51
1970	4.39	2.44
1971	4.27	2.41
1972	4.16	2.2
1973	4	2.04
1974	3.86	1.92
1975	3.82	1.81
1976	3.78	1.74
1977	3.74	1.69
1978	3.81	1.75
1979	3.82	1.86
1980	3.73	1.9
1981	3.65	1.82
1982	3.32	1.78
1983	3.11	1.77
1984	3.01	1.77
1985	2.9	1.79
1986	2.74	1.78
1987	2.64	1.81
1988	2.57	1.82
1989	2.58	1.79
1990	2.54	1.83
1991	2.51	1.82
1992	2.49	1.79
1993	2.44	1.76
1994	2.4	1.74
1995	2.35	1.71
1996	2.29	1.73
1997	2.22	1.72
1998	2.14	1.71
1999	2.14	1.68
2000	2.21	1.64
2001	2.28	1.63
2002	2.31	1.63
2003	2.3	1.7
2004	2.27	1.75
2005	2.26	1.76
2006	2.29	1.82
2007	2.3	1.86
2008	2.23	1.91
2009	2.18	1.89
2010	2.13	1.92
2011	2.14	1.91
2012	2.17	1.92
2013	2.18	1.83
2014	2.13	1.81
2015	2.09	1.8
2016	2.06	1.79
2017	2.04	1.74
2018	2.03	1.68
2019	2.02	1.63
2020	2.01	1.57
2021	2	1.58
2022	1.98	1.56
2023	1.97	1.56
2024	1.95	1.55
2025	1.94	1.54
2026	1.93	1.53
2027	1.91	1.53
2028	1.9	1.53
2029	1.89	1.52
2030	1.88	1.52
2031	1.87	1.52
2032	1.86	1.53
2033	1.85	1.53
2034	1.85	1.53
2035	1.84	1.53
2036	1.83	1.53
2037	1.83	1.53
2038	1.82	1.53
2039	1.81	1.53
2040	1.81	1.53
2041	1.8	1.54
2042	1.8	1.54
2043	1.8	1.54
2044	1.79	1.54
2045	1.79	1.54
2046	1.79	1.54
2047	1.78	1.54
2048	1.78	1.54
2049	1.77	1.55
2050	1.77	1.55

Children 0-14 years as share of population

Table

Year	Share of people 0-14 years old
	Sri Lanka	United Kingdom
1960	41%	23.3%
1961	40.9%	23.3%
1962	40.8%	23.2%
1963	40.7%	23.2%
1964	40.6%	23.3%
1965	40.5%	23.4%
1966	40.4%	23.5%
1967	40.3%	23.7%
1968	40.1%	23.9%
1969	39.9%	24%
1970	39.7%	24.1%
1971	39.5%	24.1%
1972	39.2%	24%
1973	38.8%	23.9%
1974	38.4%	23.6%
1975	38%	23.3%
1976	37.6%	22.9%
1977	37.2%	22.4%
1978	36.9%	21.9%
1979	36.7%	21.4%
1980	36.4%	21%
1981	36.2%	20.6%
1982	36%	20.2%
1983	35.8%	19.8%
1984	35.5%	19.5%
1985	35.2%	19.3%
1986	34.6%	19.1%
1987	34%	18.9%
1988	33.5%	18.9%
1989	33%	19.1%
1990	32.5%	19.1%
1991	32.1%	19.3%
1992	31.4%	19.4%
1993	30.6%	19.5%
1994	29.9%	19.6%
1995	29.2%	19.5%
1996	28.6%	19.4%
1997	28.2%	19.3%
1998	27.8%	19.3%
1999	27.4%	19.2%
2000	27%	18.9%
2001	26.6%	18.7%
2002	26.3%	18.5%
2003	26.1%	18.4%
2004	26%	18.3%
2005	25.8%	18.2%
2006	25.7%	18%
2007	25.7%	17.9%
2008	25.6%	17.8%
2009	25.5%	17.8%
2010	25.4%	17.8%
2011	25.3%	17.7%
2012	25.2%	17.8%
2013	25%	17.8%
2014	24.9%	17.8%
2015	24.7%	17.9%
2016	24.5%	18%
2017	24.2%	18%
2018	24%	18.1%
2019	23.7%	18%
2020	23.3%	18%
2021	23%	17.8%
2022	22.7%	17.6%
2023	22.4%	17.4%
2024	22%	17.2%
2025	21.7%	17%
2026	21.4%	16.7%
2027	21.1%	16.5%
2028	20.8%	16.2%
2029	20.5%	16%
2030	20.2%	15.7%
2031	20%	15.5%
2032	19.8%	15.3%
2033	19.6%	15.2%
2034	19.4%	15.1%
2035	19.2%	15%
2036	19.1%	14.9%
2037	18.9%	14.9%
2038	18.8%	14.8%
2039	18.7%	14.8%
2040	18.6%	14.8%
2041	18.4%	14.8%
2042	18.3%	14.8%
2043	18.2%	14.9%
2044	18.1%	14.9%
2045	18%	14.9%
2046	17.9%	15%
2047	17.7%	15%
2048	17.6%	15%
2049	17.5%	15%
2050	17.3%	15.1%

Children aged 0-14 make up 22% of the population in Sri Lanka and 17.2% in the United Kingdom in 2024, compared to 32.5% and 19.1% respectively in 1990.

Demographics of Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom compared.

Natural population change in Sri Lanka vs United Kingdom by year

For the past 10 years, the annual natural population change (excluding migration) has been +0.75% in Sri Lanka and +0.16% in the United Kingdom. The chart below illustrates the comparison of the absolute yearly changes resulting from births and deaths.

Table

Year	Population change due to births and deaths
	Sri Lanka	United Kingdom
1960	247,631	314,400
1961	251,087	311,519
1962	256,719	340,800
1963	262,880	337,995
1964	269,584	405,000
1965	272,422	364,132
1966	275,549	333,356
1967	284,738	346,145
1968	286,642	292,622
1969	286,218	260,577
1970	286,719	244,918
1971	281,200	257,123
1972	282,494	162,650
1973	278,577	112,389
1974	275,521	67,476
1975	282,496	33,735
1976	291,816	-5,621
1977	300,038	0
1978	317,055	16,859
1979	329,791	61,872
1980	328,155	95,734
1981	328,096	73,234
1982	300,030	56,314
1983	277,768	61,966
1984	263,175	84,633
1985	247,836	79,170
1986	233,782	90,690
1987	226,414	136,325
1988	219,184	136,628
1989	212,401	119,861
1990	224,454	154,569
1991	218,117	143,562
1992	222,230	149,709
1993	226,257	103,893
1994	228,904	127,304
1995	221,957	87,028
1996	215,290	98,884
1997	208,193	99,138
1998	201,059	87,730
1999	206,876	64,551
2000	227,060	70,671
2001	244,377	65,032
2002	252,840	65,308
2003	252,008	89,471
2004	212,527	131,974
2005	248,683	144,963
2006	248,706	176,455
2007	248,287	196,232
2008	232,225	216,325
2009	200,175	230,422
2010	224,325	251,066
2011	224,461	259,361
2012	229,138	248,473
2013	221,021	198,830
2014	211,541	206,784
2015	201,815	175,738
2016	194,232	177,139
2017	187,993	145,125
2018	183,610	119,321
2019	172,243	108,342
2020	170,968	-4,272
2021	121,858	30,612
2022	95,378	39,751
2023	66,111	34,589

Maternal mortality chart: Sri Lanka vs United Kingdom

The maternal mortality rate, which is the probability of dying during childbirth or within 42 days of pregnancy termination, is 18 deaths per 100,000 live births in Sri Lanka, compared to 8 deaths in the United Kingdom.

Table

Year	Maternal mortality per 100K births
	Sri Lanka	United Kingdom
1985	68	2
1986	66	2
1987	64	3
1988	62	4
1989	61	5
1990	59	6
1991	57	7
1992	54	7
1993	51	8
1994	49	9
1995	48	9
1996	47	8
1997	45	9
1998	43	10
1999	41	11
2000	39	12
2001	37	13
2002	36	13
2003	35	14
2004	37	13
2005	32	12
2006	32	12
2007	31	11
2008	30	11
2009	28	11
2010	26	10
2011	25	10
2012	24	9
2013	23	9
2014	23	9
2015	22	9
2016	22	9
2017	21	9
2018	21	9
2019	20	9
2020	23	14
2021	34	13
2022	22	15
2023	18	8

Under-five mortality rates

The chance that a newborn baby will die before reaching age five is 0.61% in Sri Lanka and 0.45% in the United Kingdom. Below is the historical data on under-five mortality rates.

Table

Year	Mortality rate before reaching 5 years of age, per 1,000 live births
	Sri Lanka	United Kingdom
1960	9.41%	2.66%
1961	8.95%	2.61%
1962	8.66%	2.56%
1963	8.48%	2.49%
1964	8.3%	2.42%
1965	8.07%	2.34%
1966	7.81%	2.28%
1967	7.55%	2.22%
1968	7.32%	2.18%
1969	7.14%	2.14%
1970	7.02%	2.1%
1971	6.94%	2.06%
1972	6.86%	2%
1973	6.77%	1.94%
1974	6.62%	1.87%
1975	6.41%	1.8%
1976	6.12%	1.72%
1977	5.77%	1.64%
1978	5.38%	1.57%
1979	4.99%	1.49%
1980	4.63%	1.41%
1981	4.29%	1.34%
1982	3.98%	1.27%
1983	3.67%	1.22%
1984	3.35%	1.17%
1985	3.02%	1.14%
1986	2.74%	1.11%
1987	2.54%	1.08%
1988	2.41%	1.04%
1989	2.74%	0.99%
1990	2.33%	0.93%
1991	2.32%	0.87%
1992	2.29%	0.82%
1993	2.22%	0.77%
1994	2.14%	0.74%
1995	2.05%	0.72%
1996	1.95%	0.7%
1997	1.86%	0.69%
1998	1.76%	0.68%
1999	1.69%	0.67%
2000	1.63%	0.65%
2001	1.58%	0.64%
2002	1.55%	0.63%
2003	1.52%	0.63%
2004	2.88%	0.61%
2005	1.4%	0.6%
2006	1.33%	0.59%
2007	1.26%	0.58%
2008	1.2%	0.56%
2009	2.08%	0.54%
2010	1.12%	0.52%
2011	1.08%	0.5%
2012	1.03%	0.48%
2013	0.98%	0.46%
2014	0.92%	0.45%
2015	0.87%	0.45%
2016	0.83%	0.44%
2017	0.79%	0.44%
2018	0.76%	0.44%
2019	0.72%	0.44%
2020	0.69%	0.44%
2021	0.66%	0.44%
2022	0.64%	0.45%
2023	0.61%	0.45%