Sri Lanka’s digital literacy has increased to 63.5% in the year 2023, according to the latest report by the Department of Census and Statistics. This means that three out of five persons aged between 5 and 69 in Sri Lanka are digitally literate.

Additionally, two out of five persons aged between 5 and 69 in Sri Lanka are computer literate, the report by the Department of Census and Statistics highlighted.

Accordingly, Sri Lanka’s computer literacy rate in 2023 has increased to 39.0% compared to the rate of 16.1% in the 2006 – 2007 period.
 
The findings also indicate that the computer literacy rate of males in Sri Lanka is 40.9% while in females the rate was indicated as 37.2% in 2023. 

The highest computer literacy rate is reported among the age group of 15 – 19. The computer literacy rate in this age group was recorded as 79.4%, while the number was mentioned as 74.7% in the age group of 20 – 24.

The survey results further reveal that computer literacy among the employed population is 72.4%, while the computer literacy in unemployed community is 70.3%. Among the unemployed, age 25-29 group shows highest computer literate population percentage, which is 83.7% in 2023. 

Results have further revealed that among unemployed, many have at least some ICT skills, the Department of Census and Statistics said.

Meanwhile, the survey results show an increase of 4.7 percentage points from 2021 to 2023, according to the department.

Urban sector shows the highest computer literacy rate of 52.9% among residential sectors in 2023. Computer literacy rate for Rural and Estate sectors are 37.1% and 17.9% respectively. 

Among the provinces the highest level of computer literacy is reported from the Western Province which is 49.9%. The lowest computer literacy is reported from the Uva Province (26.5%).

A person aged between 5 and 69 is considered as a computer literate person if he/she could use a computer on his/her own. For example, even if a 05-year-old child can play a computer game then he/she is considered as a computer literate person, the Department of Census and Statistics explained.

Furthermore, a person aged between 5 and 69 is considered as a digitally literate person if he/she could use computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone on his/her own, it added.

The Department of Census and Statistics (DCS) has conducted several surveys on computer literacy in Sri Lanka in 2004, 2006/07, 2009 and from 2014 onward a survey module is attached to Sri Lanka Labour Force Survey. From 2014 onward two separate bulletins are published on Computer Literacy. This bulletin reveals the major findings of the survey conducted in January to December in 2023. 

For the analysis of the computer literacy survey, a nationally distributed sample of 25,750 households and persons of aged 5 – 69 years were enumerated, according to the department.