English literacy among Sri Lanka’s Burgher community has fallen to 79.3% in 2024 from 97.4% in 2012, the only ethnic group to record a decline even as national English literacy nearly doubled over the same period, according to the latest Department of Census and Statistics data.
The 18.1 percentage-point drop is the most significant across any community in the 12-year period covered by the Census 2024 and Census 2012. National English literacy, by contrast, rose to 57.3% from 30.8% — a sharp broad-based gain driven by rising proficiency across Sinhalese, Sri Lankan Tamil, Indian/Malayaga Tamil, and Moor populations.
The trend is notable because the Burgher community — descendants of Dutch and Portuguese colonial settlers — has historically been the most English-proficient group in Sri Lanka, often serving as a benchmark for English language usage in education, administration, and professional sectors. The Daily FT, reporting the figures, said the decline “stands out not just as a statistical deviation, but as a structural shift in a community long associated with high English literacy.”
Burgher literacy in Sinhala and Tamil, however, improved over the same period. Sinhala literacy among Burghers rose from 77.0% to 81.8%, and Tamil literacy from 29.1% to 53.8%, suggesting a broader linguistic shift rather than a general decline in educational attainment.
The Census does not offer causal explanations, but several factors are likely at work. Emigration by English-speaking Burghers to Australia, Canada, the UK and the United States over recent decades has reduced the domestic pool. An ageing cohort of highly English-proficient Burghers, not fully replaced by younger generations, could also weigh on the aggregate rate. Increasing assimilation into Sinhala- and Tamil-speaking environments, particularly outside Colombo, would show up in the parallel rise in local-language literacy.
The national language literacy rate reached 97.4% in 2024, underlining that Sri Lanka has made broad gains in educational access. However, the Burgher divergence shows aggregate numbers can mask sharp shifts within smaller population groups. The Department of Census and Statistics is expected to release further Census 2024 thematic reports in the coming months.
See also the Census 2024 final report on ageing population and shifts in tertiary education.
