ABSTRACT
The movement of population within the nation has been the subject of impassioned political contention for at least three decades, sharpened and dramatized by the growth over the past dozen years of a demand for a separate state on the island for the Sri Lanka Tamil minority. This chapter presents evidence of population movements which strongly suggests a role, in combination with other social and political circumstances and developments, in inspiring and fueling collisions between majority and minority ethnic communities. The association between ethnic community and religion is very close. Sri Lanka Moors declined as a proportion of the population in the rapidly growing districts of the North and East, as members of other ethnic communities migrated into the districts. The absolute numbers of Sri Lanka Tamils in each of the districts grew, although the numbers of members of other ethnic communities grew more rapidly in several districts.
