Sri Lanka accords official status to Sinhala and Tamil, with English as a recognised language.

Arab settlers and the colonial powers of Portugal, the Netherlands and Britain have also influenced the development of modern languages in Sri Lanka.

[1] As per 2016, the Sinhala language is mostly spoken by the Sinhalese people, who constitute approximately 74.9% of the national population and total about 16.6 million.

Tamil speakers number around 4.8 million (29% of the population), making it the second largest language in Sri Lanka.

English in Sri Lanka is fluently spoken by approximately 23.8%[4] of the population, and widely used for official and commercial purposes.