According to a National Survey conducted by the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka’s computer literacy of Sri Lanka has increased from 16.1 percent in 2006/07 to 27.1 percent in 2015.
The urban sector shows the highest computer literacy rate (39.2%) among residential sectors as opposed to 25.5 percent and 9.0 percent respectively in the rural and estate sectors.
According to the findings of the survey, the computer literacy among male is 29.1 percent which is higher than that of female (25.3 percent). In analysing all age groups, those between 15-19 years reported the highest computer literacy rate (58-7%). Among educational levels, the highest computer literacy rate 70.0 percent is reported for the group of G.C.E. (A/L) or above that level of education. The survey results further reveal that the computer literacy is very high (69.5%) along those who are literate in English language.
Issuing a news release, Dr. Amara Satharasinghe Director General of the DCS, has said that one out of every four households in Sri Lanka has a computer not only in urban areas but also in rural areas. The availability of computers in estate area is 4.5 percent.
The highest computer availability is reported from the Western province (38.5%), and the lowest availability from Uva province (12.5%). Colombo District shows the highest percentage (28.1%) of population using Internet and Badulla the lowest percentage. Every 12 out of 100 persons in the age group of 5-69 years have used Internet facility and 9 out of 100 persons have used email facility at least once during the 12 months period of 2015.
Computer literacy among the employed population in Sri Lanka is 52.0 percent in 2015. Computer literacy among unemployed youth is very high. According to the survey results, computer literacy rate of unemployed youths in age groups 20-24 years and 25-29 years is 80.7 and 78.9 percent respectively.
