by industrial wastes and sewage runoff

Environment - international agreements:
party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Endangered Species,
Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Nuclear
Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands, Whaling
signed, but not ratified: Marine Life Conservation

Geography - note: strategic location near major Indian Ocean sea lanes

@Sri Lanka:People

Population: 18,721,178 (July 1997 est.)
note: since the outbreak of hostilities between the government and
armed Tamil separatists in the mid-1980s, several hundred thousand
Tamil civilians have fled the island; as of late 1996, 63,068 were
housed in refugee camps in south India, another 30,000-40,000 lived
outside the Indian camps, and more than 200,000 Tamils have sought
political asylum in the West

Age structure:
0-14 years: 28% (male 2,698,852; female 2,581,476)
15-64 years : 66% (male 6,019,140; female 6,266,311)
65 years and over: 6% (male 565,671; female 589,728) (July 1997 est.)

Population growth rate: 1.14% (1997 est.)

Birth rate: 18.64 births/1,000 population (1997 est.)

Death rate: 5.9 deaths/1,000 population (1997 est.)

Net migration rate: -1.37 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1997 est.)

Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.05 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-64 years : 0.96 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.96 male(s)/female
total population: 0.98 male(s)/female (1997 est.)

Infant mortality rate: 16.5 deaths/1,000 live births (1997 est.)

Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 72.42 years
male: 69.75 years
female: 75.23 years (1997 est.)

Total fertility rate: 2.15 children born/woman (1997 est.)

Nationality:
noun: Sri Lankan(s)
adjective: Sri Lankan

Ethnic groups: Sinhalese 74%, Tamil 18%, Moor 7%, Burgher, Malay, and
Vedda 1%

Religions: Buddhist 69%, Hindu 15%, Christian 8%, Muslim 8%

Languages: Sinhala (official and national language) 74%, Tamil
(national language) 18%
note: English is commonly used in government and is spoken by about
10% of the population

Literacy:
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 90.2%
male: 93.4%
female: 87.2% (1995 est.)

@Sri Lanka:Government

Country name:
conventional long form : Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka
conventional short form: Sri Lanka
former: Ceylon

Data code: CE

Government type: republic

National capital: Colombo

Administrative divisions: 8 provinces; Centr