Jaffna has a population of 169,102, making it the 4th largest place we list in Sri Lanka. It is in Northern Province.
Jaffna holds 0.72% of Sri Lanka's 23,348,315 people. Colombo, the largest place we list there, is 3.8 times its size. Twenty years earlier the World Gazetteer recorded 169,102, almost unchanged.
The 2005 figure comes from the World Gazetteer archive restored on this site. The two sources may draw the settlement's boundary differently, so treat the change as indicative rather than exact. Why figures differ.
Nearby in size
| Place | Region | Population |
|---|---|---|
| Colombo | Western Province | 648,034 |
| Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia | Western Province | 219,827 |
| Maharagama | Western Province | 195,355 |
| Moratuwa | Western Province | 168,280 |
| Negombo | Western Province | 137,223 |
| Pita Kotte | Western Province | 118,179 |
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.