Sri Lanka

News coverage about Sri Lanka accounts for 0.478% of all coverage GDELT monitors worldwide as of August 20, 2026. Output is up 20.8% week-over-week. The average tone of this coverage is +0.91 — neutral-to-positive. Coverage is surging: 6.3 standard deviations above the trailing average.

LK · LKA · Asia · Wikidata

Data updated: · refreshed every 2 hours from GDELT

Coverage share
0.478%
of monitored articles
Week over week
+20.8%
7-day mean vs prior
Average tone
+0.91
neutral-to-positive
Refresh tier
Standard
~5h cadence

Coverage volume, last 90 days

Sri Lanka coverage volume: 91 days, latest 0.48% on 2026-08-200.000.250.50May 22Jun 7Jun 23Jul 9Jul 25Aug 10Aug 20

Coverage tone, last 90 days

Sri Lanka coverage tone: 91 days, latest tone 0.91 on 2026-08-20+50-5May 22Jun 7Jun 23Jul 9Jul 25Aug 10Aug 20

Event activity (CAMEO-coded)

Protests (1/day latest)

Protest events located in Sri Lanka: 73 days, latest 1.00 on 2026-08-190.0010.020.0May 26Jun 11Jun 25Jul 10Jul 27Aug 10Aug 19

Diplomacy (17/day latest)

Diplomatic events located in Sri Lanka: 87 days, latest 17.00 on 2026-08-200.00250500May 26Jun 10Jun 25Jul 10Jul 25Aug 9Aug 20

Coercion & force (1/day latest)

Coercive events located in Sri Lanka: 87 days, latest 1.00 on 2026-08-200.00125250May 26Jun 10Jun 25Jul 10Jul 25Aug 9Aug 20

CAMEO-coded events geolocated to Sri Lanka, counted daily from GDELT's event stream (protests: root 14; diplomacy: 04–05; coercion through mass violence: 17–20).

Coverage origin: local vs international

Over the last two weeks, 24% of the coverage about Sri Lanka came from outlets based in Sri Lanka — the rest was written from abroad (6,127 articles with a known outlet home country).

Daily share of coverage about Sri Lanka from domestic outlets (%): 49 days, latest 26.98 on 2026-08-200.0025.050.0Jul 3Jul 12Jul 21Jul 30Aug 8Aug 17Aug 20

Share of articles about Sri Lanka produced by domestic outlets, computed daily across GDELT's English and translated streams. Outlet home countries are mapped per news domain (GDELT source-country data); articles from unmapped outlets are excluded from the denominator. A very low share during major events can mean the story is being told about a place rather than from it.

Most-mentioned places

  • Colombo (58)
  • Kandy (49)
  • Sigiriya (49)
  • Minneriya (48)
  • Kala Wewa (2)
  • Mannar (2)
  • Mount Lavinia (2)
  • Puttalam (2)
  • Anuradhapura (2)
  • Polonnaruwa (2)
  • Eastern University (1)
  • Hangilipola (1)

Places named in coverage about Sri Lanka on 2026-08-20 (GDELT location extraction; article counts).

Active topics in coverage about Sri Lanka

Country indicators

GDP (current US$)
$108.8B
World Bank, 2025
Population
21.8M
World Bank, 2025
Trade (% of GDP)
41.8%
World Bank, 2025
Military expenditure (% of GDP)
1.4%
World Bank, 2024

Armed conflict, trailing 12 months

Conflict fatalities
104
best estimate
Civilian deaths
0
within the above
Recorded events
1
organized violence

Source: Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP GED), window 2025-08-01..2026-07-31, refreshed monthly. Recent months are preliminary candidate data.

Displacement, end of 2025

Internally displaced
4,099
within the country
Refugees abroad
148,369
originating from Sri Lanka
Refugees hosted
213
from other countries
Asylum seekers
271
pending claims, hosted

Source: UNHCR Refugee Data Finder, year-end 2025 stocks, plus 232 stateless persons. IDP figures cover conflict-displaced populations reported to UNHCR.

Coverage share measures articles published by Sri Lanka-based outlets as a share of all GDELT-monitored coverage — see methodology. Derived data is CC BY 4.0 (“Geotone / GDELT”).