Sri Lanka’s computer literacy for the first half of 2015 is 26.8 percent compared to 25.1 percent reported in 2014, the Department of Census and Statistics says.

The computer literacy related statistics of persons who are in age group of 5 – 69 years and characteristics of households have been released by the Department of Census and Statistics for the first half of the year 2015, based on Computer Literacy Survey 2015; conducted by the Department. 

Computer Literacy Survey is a yearlong sample survey which is conducted in 12 consecutive months by enumerating 25,000 households. According to the survey 24.6 percent of households of the country have at least one desktop computer or laptop computer and 67 percent of the households have acquired their first computer during the last five years (2010 – 2014). Ability to use a computer to perform any activity has been defined as the ‘Computer Literacy’ for the purpose of this survey.

According to this definition computer literacy of Sri Lanka reported 26.8% at national level. Computer literacy for the male (28.7%) is higher than the female (25.1 %).  Among the provinces the highest level of computer literacy is reported from Western Province ( 38.3 %) while the lowest level is reported from Eastern Province (12.8% ). When compared across the districts, Colombo district shows highest computer literacy of 47.1 % and Mullaitivu district reports lowest level of 8.9 %. Above 30 % computer literacy is reported for Gampaha, Kandy and Kalutara districts. 

Wide variations on computer literacy rates are noted across age groups. Young youths (aged 15 – 19 years) reported the highest computer literacy rate of 57.2 %. Usage of internet (27.6 %) and e‐ mail (21.2 %) is highest in Colombo district. Dr. A.J Satharasinghe Director General of Census and Statistics said that among unemployed population, those who are in the age group of 20  ‐24 years reported computer literacy of 69.1 percent.