The Northern Province ( Vaṭa Mākāṇam; Uturu Paḷāta) is one of the nine provinces of Sri Lanka. The province has an area of 8,884 km2, making it the 3rd largest province by area, and a population of 1,150,148 making it the least populated province. Jaffna is the capital city of the province.

Between 1988 and 2006, the province was temporarily merged with the Eastern Province into one province, the North Eastern Province. Due to its large Tamil population, the Northern Province is sometimes referred to as "Sri Lanka's Tamil country". The majority of the fighting in the Sri Lankan Civil War took place in the Northern province.

History

Parts of present-day Northern Province were part of the pre-colonial Jaffna kingdom. Other parts were ruled by Vanniar Chieftains who paid tribute to the Jaffna kingdom. The province then came under Portuguese, Dutch and British control. In 1815 the British gained control of the entire island of Ceylon. They divided the island into three ethnic based administrative structures: Low Country Sinhalese, Kandyan Sinhalese and Tamil. The Northern Province was part of the Tamil administration. In 1833, in accordance with the recommendations of the Colebrooke-Cameron Commission, the ethnic based administrative structures were unified into a single administration divided into five geographic provinces. The districts of Jaffna, Mannar, Nuvarakalaviya (present day Anuradhapura District) and Vanni formed the new Northern Province. Nuvarakalaviya was transferred to the newly created North Central Province in 1873.

The Indo-Lanka Accord signed on 29 July 1987 required the Sri Lankan government to devolve powers to the provinces and, in the interim, to merge the Northern and Eastern provinces into one administrative unit. The accord required a referendum to be held by 31 December 1988 in the Eastern Province to decide whether the merger should be permanent. Crucially, the accord allowed the Sri Lankan president to postpone the referendum at his discretion.

On 14 November 1987 the Sri Lankan Parliament passed the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Provincial Councils Act No 42 of 1987, establishing provincial councils. On September 2 and 8 1988 President Jayewardene issued proclamations enabling the Northern and Eastern provinces to be one administrative unit administered by one elected Council. The North Eastern Province was born.

The proclamations were only meant to be a temporary measure until a referendum was held in the Eastern Province on a permanent merger between the two provinces. However, the referendum was never held and successive Sri Lankan presidents issued proclamations annually extending the life of the "temporary" entity.

The merger was bitterly opposed by Sinhalese nationalists. The new province made up about one fourth of the total area of Sri Lanka. The thought of the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam controlling this province, directly or indirectly, alarmed them greatly. On 14 July 2006, after a long campaign against the merger, the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna political party filed three separate petitions with the Supreme Court requesting a separate provincial council for the East. On 16 October 2006 the Supreme Court ruled that the proclamations issued by President Jayewardene were null and void and had no legal effect. The North Eastern Province was formally de-merged into the Northern and Eastern provinces on 1 January 2007.

Much of the Northern Province was under the control of rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam for many years during the civil war. The province was fully recaptured by the Sri Lankan military in 2009 with the Battle of Mullaitivu.

While the Northern province has seen an era of peace after the end of the war, the scars left by the war still remain. Despite the large amount of infrastructure projects undertaken by the Mahinda Rajapaksa government, at the cost of over $3 billion, the projects have been unable to create new jobs and as a result the province suffers from extreme levels of unemployment.

In late 2014, then-incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa imposed a travel ban to prevent foreigners from traveling to the former war zone in the province. The ban was lifted three months later by the newly elected president Maithripala Sirisena.

Geography

Northern Province is located in the north of Sri Lanka and is just from India at its nearest point. It is nearly connected with the Indian mainland by Adam's Bridge (also known as Sethu Paalam or Rama's Bridge) which is a series of rocky limestone islets.

The province is surrounded by the Gulf of Mannar and Palk Bay to the west, Palk Strait to the north west, the Bay of Bengal to the north and east and the Eastern, North Central and North Western provinces to the south.

The province is divided into two distinct geographic areas: Jaffna Peninsula and the Vanni. Jaffna Peninsula is irrigated by underground aquifers fed by wells whereas the Vanni has irrigation tanks fed by perennial rivers. Major rivers include: Akkarayan Aru, Aruvi Aru, Kanakarayan Aru, Kodalikkallu Aru, Mandekal Aru, Nay Aru, Netheli Aru, Pali Aru, Pallavarayankaddu Aru, Parangi Aru, Per Aru, Piramenthal Aru, Theravil Aru.

The province has a number of lagoons, the largest being Jaffna Lagoon, Nanthi Kadal, Chundikkulam Lagoon, Vadamarachchi Lagoon, Uppu Aru Lagoon, Kokkilai lagoon, Nai Aru Lagoon and Chalai Lagoon.

Most of the islands around Sri Lanka are to be found to the west of the Northern Province. The largest islands are: Velanaitivu (Kayts), Neduntivu (Delft), Karaitivu, Pungudutivu and Mandativu.

Northern Province is covered in tropical forests, with numerous rivers flowing through them. The north-west coast is part of the deep Cauvery (Kaveri) River Basin of south-east India, which has been collecting sediments from the highlands of India and Sri Lanka since the breakup of Gondwanaland.

Climate and weather Sri Lanka enjoys a typical tropical monsoonal climate. The Northern Province tends to be hot and dry in the dry season (February to September), and moderately cool and wet in the wet season (October to January). In the lowlands, the climate is typically tropical with the average temperature is around 28 °C to 30 °C throughout the year. January is typically the coolest month and May is the hottest month. Relative humidity varies from 70% during the day to 90% at night. The Dry Zone of the Sri Lanka is the north and east of the island, this region is affected by the north east monsoon (December to March) and southwest monsoon (June to October). It is thought to be dry because most of the rains fall during the north-east monsoon.

Annual rainfall is less than 1250 mm in the north west and south east of the Inland. It has two rainy seasons South West Monsoon- May to August, North East Monsoon- November to February.

Administrative divisions

Districts The Northern Province is divided into five districts, 34 divisional secretariats and 921 Grama Niladhari divisions.

DistrictCapitalDistrict SecretaryDSDivisions GNDivisions TotalArea(km2) LandArea(km2) PopulationPopulationDensity(/km2)Jaffna District Jaffna M.Piiratheepan 15 435 1,025 929 594,751 580Kilinochchi DistrictKilinochchiS.Muralitharan 4 95 1,279 1,205 136,710 106Mannar DistrictMannarK.Kanakeshwaran 5 153 1,996 1,880 123,756 62Mullaitivu DistrictMullaitivuA.Umamaheswaran 6 136 2,617 2,415 122,619 47Vavuniya DistrictVavuniyaP.A. Sarathchandra 4 102 1,967 1,861 172,312 88Total 34 921 8,884 8,290 1,150,148 129

Major cities and towns

City/town District Population(2012est) Vavuniya Vavuniya 99,653 Jaffna Jaffna 88,138 Chavakacheri Jaffna 41,407 Mannar Mannar 35,817 Point Pedro Jaffna 31,351 Valvettithurai Jaffna 27,210

Demographics The population of the northern province was 1,150,148 in 2024. The majority of the population are Sri Lankan Tamil, with sizeable Sri Lankan Moor and Sinhalese minorities.

The population of the province, like that of the Eastern Province, was heavily affected by the civil war. The war killed an estimated 100,000 people. Several hundred thousand Sri Lankan Tamils, possibly as much as one million, emigrated to Western countries during the war. Many Sri Lankan Tamils also moved to the relative safety of the capital city Colombo. Most of the Sri Lankan Moors and Sinhalese who lived in the province fled to other parts of Sri Lanka, though most of them have returned to the province since the end of the civil war.

Ethnicity + Population of Northern Province by ethnic group 1881 to 2024Year Tamil Muslim Sinhalese Other TotalNo.No. % No. % No. % No. %1881 Census 289,481 95.70% 10,416 3.44% 1,379 0.46% 1,224 0.41% 302,5001891 Census 304,355 95.32% 11,831 3.71% 1,922 0.60% 1,188 0.37% 319,2961901 Census 326,379 95.73% 11,862 3.48% 1,555 0.46% 1,140 0.33% 340,9361911 Census 352,698 95.41% 12,818 3.47% 2,890 0.78% 1,2450.34% 369,6511921 Census 356,801 95.19% 13,095 3.49% 3,795 1.01% 1,1380.30% 374,8291946 Census 449,958 93.82% 18,183 3.79% 9,6022.00% 1,8290.38% 479,5721963 Census 689,470 92.93% 30,7604.15% 20,2702.73% 1,410 0.19% 741,9101971 Census 799,406 91.07% 37,8554.31% 39,5114.50% 9960.11% 877,7681981 Census 1,021,006 92.03% 50,9914.60% 35,128 3.17% 2,2790.21% 1,109,4042000 Estimate n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1,085,4782001 Estimate n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1,111,7412002 Estimate n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1,109,1822003 Estimate n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1,118,7532004 Estimate n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1,131,8542005 Estimate n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1,206,3262006 Estimate n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a 1,350,9612007 Estimate 1,277,567 97.39% 20,583 1.57% 13,626 1.04% 0 0.00% 1,311,7762008 Estimate 1,022,431 96.90% 19,184 1.82% 13,492 1.28% 50 0.00% 1,055,1572009 Estimate 943,312 95.68% 26,3042.67% 16,240 1.65% 0 0.00% 985,8562011 Enumeration 942,824 94.49% 32,659 3.27% 21,860 2.19% 411 0.04% 997,7542012 Census 993,741 93.86% 32,364 3.06% 32,331 3.05% 326 0.03% 1,058,7622024 Census1,056,38691.85%57,7065.02%35,5423.09%5140.04%1,150,148

Religion + Population of Northern Province by religion 1981 to 2024Year Hindu Christian Muslim Buddhist Other TotalNo.No. % No.% No. % No. % No. %1981 Census 860,281 77.54% 169,004 14.19% 54,534 4.92% 25,281 2.28% 304 0.03% 1,109,4042011 Enumeration 755,066 75.68% 187,663 18.81% 33,185 3.33% 20,451 2.05% 1,389 0.14% 997,7542012 Census 789,362 74.56% 204,005 19.27% 34,040 3.22% 30,387 2.87% 968 0.09% 1,058,7622024 Census829,23572.10%226,82419.72%60,6835.28%33,2882.89%1180.01%1,150,148

Governance and politics

Sri Lankan Parliament First elected representation at provincial level to a legislative came about after the Second Manning Reforms of the Legislative Council of Ceylon which assigned a seat to the Northern Province. With universal adult suffrage been enabled through the Donoughmore Constitution, representatives from the province were elected to parliament. Currently Two Electoral Districts, namely Jaffna Electoral District and Vanni Electoral District which elects 15 of the 225 members of the Sri Lankan Parliament.

Provincial council

Until 1978, the administration of the provinces in Sri Lanka where mainly carried out by the Government Agents of the districts. Through the 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka and the Provincial Councils Act, No. 42 of 1987, Provincial council were established in the Provinces.

The 13th Amendment to the 1978 Constitution of Sri Lanka established provincial councils. The first elections for provincial councils took place on 28 April 1988 in North Central, North Western, Sabaragamuwa, and Uva provinces.