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Municipal councils of Sri Lanka

Administrative division in Sri Lanka

Summary

Administrative division in Sri Lanka

There are 27 Municipal councils in Sri Lanka, which are the legislative bodies that preside over the largest cities and first tier municipalities in the country. Introduced in 1987 through the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, municipal councils became a devolved subject under the Provincial Councils in the Local Government system of Sri Lanka. Until 2025 municipal councils collectively governed 4.19 million people within a 698 square kilometre area. There were 445 Councillors in total, ranging from 53 to 9 per council.

Polonnaruwa Municipal Council was created on 30 June 2017, bifurcated from Thamankaduwa Pradeshiya Sabha.

A extraordinary gazette was published in 2022 to upgrade existing urban councils to municipal councils for the localities of Puttalam, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Kegalle and Kalutara. Following the conclusion of the Local Government elections in 2025, the municipal councils for the new localities commenced operations.

Municipal councils

;Parties

Province	District	Municipal council	Municipality	Established/
Elevated	No. of
Councillors	Mayor	Area (km2)
2012	Population
(2024)	Website
Western	1	Colombo	1	Colombo	Colombo	1865	117 (2)	National People's Power}}" !align="center" color:white;"		(List)
2	Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia	Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia	1959	54 (6)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	21	138,460
3	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	1997	39 (1)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	17	77,162
4	Kaduwela	Kaduwela	2011	47 (1)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	87	204,547
5	Moratuwa	Moratuwa	1997	52 (4)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	23	122,567
2	Gampaha	6	Negombo	Negombo	1950	49 (1)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	31
7	Gampaha	Gampaha		28 (2)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	38	53,775
North Western	3	Kurunegala	8	Kurunegala	Kurunegala	1952	22 (1)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)
Central	4	Kandy	9	Kandy	Kandy	1865	46 (5)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)
5	Matale	10	Matale	Matale	1947	22 (1)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	26
11	Dambulla	Dambulla	2011	22 (1)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	58	20,267
6	Nuwara Eliya	12	Nuwara Eliya	Nuwara Eliya	1949	25 (2)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	12
Uva	7	Badulla	13	Badulla	Badulla		27 (2)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)
14	Bandarawela	Bandarawela	2011	16 (1)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	27	20,481
Southern	8	Galle	15	Galle	Galle		36 (1)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)
9	Matara	16	Matara	Matara		30	National People's Power}}; color:white;"		(List)	13
10	Hambantota	17	Hambantota	Hambantota	2011	21	Samagi Jana Balawegaya}}; color:white;"		(List)	83
Sabaragamuwa	11	Ratnapura	18	Ratnapura	Ratnapura		27 (2)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)
North Central	12	Anuradhapura	19	Anuradhapura	Anuradhapura		26 (3)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)
13	Polonnaruwa	20	Polonnaruwa	Polonnaruwa	2017	16 (5)	National People's Power}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	30.29
Northern	14	Jaffna	21	Jaffna	Jaffna	1949	45	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi}}; color:white;"		(List)
Eastern	15	Batticaloa	22	Batticaloa	Batticaloa	1967	34 (4)	Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)
16	Ampara	23	Kalmunai	Kalmunai	2001	41	Independent (politician)	Independent}}; color:white;"		(List)	23
24	Akkaraipattu	Akkaraipattu	2011	22 (2)	National Congress (Sri Lanka)}}; color:white;" !align="center"		(List)	7	27,760

Notes

References

"Compilation of Local Authority". Ministry of Local Government and Provincial Councils.
"Local government".
"Area, Population, Registered voters and Employees of Municipalities, 2011 – 2012". Department of Census and Statistics Sri Lanka.
"Local Government Statistics, 2012". Department of Census and Statistics.
(May 2025). "2024 Electoral Register, 2024(1), 2024(2), 2024(3) Supplementary Electoral Registers – Number of Registered Electors".
"City Of Polonnaruwa To Be Elevated To Municipal Council".
"Live Sri Lanka Local Government Election Results 2025 {{!}} Real-Time Results".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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