Title: Population Growth in Sri Lanka:Prospects and Challenges
Description: During the period 1953 to 1963 when the rate of growth of population was rapid at 2.8 per cent, per capita Gross domestic product at constant prices grew at only 0.1 per cent. If population growth rate in the 1950s was the same as at present, the per capita GDP would have grown at a ten fold higher rate. In Sri Lanka, during the past four decades, population increase has outpaced improvements in agricultural productivity. For  instance, paddy production increased from about 300 metric tons in 1950 to more than 2,500 metric tons in 1990, a significant eight fold increase over a period of 40 years. However, Sri Lanka has not yet reached self sufficiency in rice. During this period, about 10 million people have been added to the population. Despite the remarkable increase in paddy production, output per person has increased at a much slower pace. Relatively high fertility experience during the period 1950 to 1970 has  also resulted in the labour force growing at a higher rate than population. Thus at present, while the population growth rate is around 1.2 per cent, labour force increases at a faster rate of 2.2 per cent. This has created a situation where the annual inflow to the labour force is far in excess of the outflow. Annually, there are about 270,000 young people entering the labour force while about 120,000 older people leave the labour force resulting in a net addition of about 150,000for whom new employment opportunities have to be created through economic development. Given the current backlog of unemployed  of over a million, annually about 200,000 new jobs need to be created to reduce the present unemployment rate of nearly 13 per cent to about 5 per cent by the end of this decade. Another implication is deforestation. A clear inverse relationship is observed between population growth and reduction of forest cover. In 1956, the natural forest cover was estimated at 44 per cent of the land area when the total population was about 9 million. By 1992, this proportion had declined to 23 per cent while the total population had increased to nearly 18 million.

As a result of Sri Lanka's success in reducing the rate of population growth in the recent past, there is a sense of complacency in certain quarters to indicate that what has been achieved is adequate. On the other hand, there is concern as to whether the past rends would continue in the future. However, there is general agreement among population planners that the programatic momentum that has been build up over the past two decades needs to be strengthened to ensure that fertility continues to decline to reach replacement level as early as possible.