Colombo has a population of 648,034, making it the largest place we list in Sri Lanka. It is in Western Province.
Colombo holds 2.8% of Sri Lanka's 23,348,315 people. The World Gazetteer published 648,034 for Colombo in 2005 and GeoNames still carries that same figure, so there is no measured change to report.
The 2005 figure comes from the World Gazetteer archive restored on this site. Why figures differ.
Nearby in size
| Place | Region | Population |
|---|---|---|
| Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia | Western Province | 219,827 |
| Maharagama | Western Province | 195,355 |
| Jaffna | Northern Province | 169,102 |
Figures are the latest available in GeoNames (CC BY 4.0), which draws on national censuses of varying dates — treat them as recent, not same-year. Country totals are UN World Population Prospects 2024 (medium variant) where the UN lists the country separately; the handful it reports under a parent state keep a GeoNames figure and are marked as such. Sources & method.