Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka is one of the 193 UN member states, in Southern Asia. UN Tourism counted 2 million international arrivals there in 2019, rarer than 52% of the 199 places with figures, so its stamp in Globestamp is printed in Colour-shift.
- International arrivals
- 2 millionin 2019, UN Tourism
- Rank by visitors
- 104th of 199most visited first
- Stamp finish
- Colour-shiftrarer than 52%
- Area
- 66,571 km² (25,703 sq mi)
- Population
- 21.8 millionNatural Earth estimate
- Districts
- 25in Globestamp’s regions layer
- Airports
- 7with scheduled flights
- World Heritage Sites
- 8on Globestamp’s list
Does Sri Lanka count as a country?
Yes. Sri Lanka is one of the 193 UN member states, so every common list counts it: the UN’s 193, Globestamp’s 250 and the Travelers’ Century Club’s 330.
| List | Counts Sri Lanka? |
|---|---|
| UN member states (193) | Yes, a member |
| Globestamp’s countries and territories (250) | Yes |
| Travelers’ Century Club (330) | Yes, as Sri Lanka (Ceylon) |
| European Union | No |
| Schengen area | No |
The Sri Lanka stamp
Every country in Globestamp has its own stamp, drawn after a real entry stamp. Its finish shows how few travelers get there. Sri Lanka’s is Colour-shift: one colour straight on, another at an angle, the finish for places with 2 to 6 million visitors a year. With 2 million international arrivals in 2019, Sri Lanka is rarer than 52% of the 199 places with figures. See every stamp on the stamp wall, or the rarest on the least-visited countries.
What counts as a visit to Sri Lanka
The common rule among travelers is that you set foot there: an airport layover usually doesn’t count, and a port where you went ashore does. Globestamp counts Sri Lanka when one of your photos was taken on its ground, or just off its coast; a photo taken from a plane never counts. Photos only at an airport make a transit stamp in lighter ink, counted only if you count layovers. Read more in how to count the countries you’ve visited.
Places in Sri Lanka you can collect
Under the country itself, Globestamp keeps layers of places on your globe, and a photo taken at one ticks it. These are the ones it knows in Sri Lanka, from 8 World Heritage Sites.
World Heritage Sites 8
Kandy (1988) · Anuradhapura (1982) · Sigiriya (1982) · Polonnaruwa (1982) · Sinharaja Forest Reserve (1988) · Dambulla cave temple (1991) · Central Highlands of Sri Lanka (2010) · Old Town of Galle and its Fortifications (1988). On the bucket list →
National parks 2
Yala National Park · Bundala National Park. On the bucket list →
Famous landmarks 1
Sigiriya. On the bucket list →
Zoos and aquariums 4
Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage · National Zoological Gardens of Sri Lanka · Pinnawala Open Zoo · Ridiyagama Safari Park. On the bucket list →
Botanical gardens 5
Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya · Hakgala Botanical Garden · Henarathgoda Botanical Garden · Seetawaka Botanical Garden and 1 more. On the bucket list →
Science museums and planetariums 1
Sri Lanka Planetarium. On the bucket list →
Largest cities
| City | People (urban area) |
|---|---|
| Jaffna | 250,000 |
| Colombo | 217,000 |
| Moratuwa | 200,000 |
| Batticaloa | 129,222 |
| Anuradhapura | 118,302 |
| Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte | 115,826 |
| Kandy | 111,701 |
| Trincomalee | 108,420 |
Airports
Sri Lanka has 7 airports with scheduled flights, 3 of them large. Each is a dot on Globestamp’s airports layer, and every flight you log adds to how far you’ve flown (try the flight distance calculator).
25 districts to fill in
Globestamp goes deeper than countries: its regions layer splits Sri Lanka into 25 districts (Natural Earth’s first-level divisions), and each one fills in when a photo was taken there.
All 25
Ampara · Anuradhapura · Badulla · Batticaloa · Colombo · Galle · Gampaha · Hambantota · Jaffna · Kalutara · Kandy · Kegalle · Kilinochchi · Kurunegala · Mannar · Matale · Matara · Monaragala · Mullaitivu · Nuwara Eliya · Polonnaruwa · Puttalam · Ratnapura · Trincomalee · Vavuniya
Questions people ask
Is Sri Lanka a country?
Yes. Sri Lanka is one of the 193 UN member states, so every common list counts it: the UN’s 193, Globestamp’s 250 and the Travelers’ Century Club’s 330.
How many tourists visit Sri Lanka a year?
UN Tourism (via the World Bank) counted 2,027,000 international arrivals in Sri Lanka in 2019, the 104th most of the 199 places with figures. Countries count arrivals in different ways (some include day-trippers and cruise passengers), so treat it as a rough rank rather than an exact number of tourists.
How rare is a Sri Lanka stamp in Globestamp?
It is printed in Colour-shift, the finish for places with 2 to 6 million visitors a year, rarer than 52% of the places with figures. The fewer travelers a place receives, the rarer its finish, from plain Ink to Mythic.
Does Sri Lanka count for the Travelers’ Century Club?
Yes. The Travelers’ Century Club counts it as “Sri Lanka (Ceylon)”, one of its 330 destinations.
Places as rare as Sri Lanka
Near Sri Lanka
Sources
- Countries, cities and regions: Natural Earth 10m admin-0 (public domain); lists as of October 2026.
- Visitors: UN Tourism via the World Bank, ST.INT.ARVL (International tourism, number of arrivals), CC BY 4.0, data updated 2026-10-08. Each country's latest year before 2020. Countries count visitors differently; use as a rough rank.
- World Heritage Sites, parks, landmarks and the bucket-list places: Wikidata (CC0), as compiled in the app, October 2026.
- Airports: OurAirports (public domain), airports with scheduled service.
- Travelers’ Century Club: the club’s list of 330 destinations, as of January 2022.