Sri Lankan Americans

Sri Lankans started arriving in the U.S. in larger numbers around the mid 1950s, but there is evidence from U.S. census records which proves that Sri Lankans first emigrated from Ceylon and arrived in the United States in earlier years, mostly between the 1880s and the 1890s.

In 1975, Sri Lankan immigrants were classified as belonging to a category which was separate from "other Asian" for the first time.

[6] The New York City Metropolitan Area, including New York City, Long Island, and Central New Jersey, contains the largest Sri Lankan community in the United States, receiving the highest legal permanent resident Sri Lankan immigrant population,[2][3][4] followed by the Los Angeles metropolitan area.

[15] Other communities with Sri Lankans include Queens, New York; Garden City Park, New York; Sewaren, New Jersey; Gaithersburg, Maryland; Kensington, Maryland; and Fishers, Indiana.

In Los Angeles there is a large presence in the San Fernando Valley, in particular in Reseda and Tarzana.