Sri Lanka Divisional Secretariat (DS) Division Finder

A Divisional Secretariat (DS division, DSD) is the third tier of Sri Lanka's administrative geography. The Department of Census and Statistics defines four tiers: 9 provinces → 25 districts → 331 DS divisions → 14,022 Grama Niladhari (GN) divisions. Almost every Sri Lankan government form — passport, NIC, character certificate, marriage registration, business name, samurdhi/Aswesuma, voter registration, university application, vehicle registration — asks for the DS division because the local office handles the work.

Where the data comes from.Every name, code, and population figure on this page comes from the Department of Census and Statistics' published administrative-divisions dataset and the Census of Population and Housing 2012 district reports. Areas in square kilometres come from the same dataset; Grama Niladhari counts per DS come from the GN-division allocation tables. Sinhala and Tamil names use the official Government Gazette transliterations.

How the lookup works. The directory is bundled inside the page as a typed JavaScript constant — no network calls, no rate limits, no tracking. When you pick a province the district dropdown narrows to the 9provinces' districts (Western Province has 3 districts, Northern has 5, and so on). When you pick a district the tool lists its DS divisions sorted by their Census code, alongside a district summary header that sums the per-DS populations, areas, and GN-division counts.

Free-text search. Switch to Search mode and type two or more characters. The matcher ranks against three text fields per record: the canonical English name, the Sinhala name (e.g. මහරගම), and the Tamil name (e.g. நல்லூர்), plus any aliases. Exact matches rank highest, then prefix matches, then substring matches. So "Mahara" surfaces Mahara DS (Gampaha) before Maharagama DS (Colombo); "Wellampitiya" surfaces Kolonnawa DS because Wellampitiya is registered as an alias for it.

Cross-check (data integrity).Census 2012 published a population total per district. For every district the tool sums the populations of its constituent DS divisions and compares the sum to the published district total. The summary header surfaces this reconciliation as a small badge — every district's sum falls within ±0.5% of the Census aggregate, which is the tightest honest tolerance after rounding. A few representative reconciliations:

• Colombo District — DS sum: 2,324,349 · Census reported: 2,324,349 · Δ +0.00%
• Kandy District — DS sum: 1,375,382 · Census reported: 1,375,382 · Δ +0.00%
• Jaffna District — DS sum: 583,882 · Census reported: 583,882 · Δ +0.00%
• Kurunegala District — DS sum: 1,618,465 · Census reported: 1,618,465 · Δ +0.00%
• Anuradhapura District — DS sum: 860,575 · Census reported: 860,575 · Δ +0.00%

Form-friendly names.Government forms accept a specific spelling for each DS — "Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte", not "Kotte"; "Galle Four Gravets", not just "Galle"; "Manmunai North (Batticaloa Town)", with the parenthesised town spelled in full. Each DS card exposes the exact canonical spelling with a one-tap Copy button so you can paste it straight into your application without typos.

What the tool deliberately leaves out

GN-division (Grama Niladhari) lookup is a separate problem — Sri Lanka has 14,022 GN divisions and a useful tool needs the village name alongside the GN code. That dataset will land as a separate GN-division finder in a future build. Boundary polygons / map rendering are also out of scope — the polygon data from the Survey Department of Sri Lanka is over 10 MB compressed, which would blow past this site's 400 KB initial-page-weight bar. For boundary maps, the Survey Department's portal at mapdata.gov.lk is the authoritative source. Live office hours and holiday closures are also intentionally excluded — they vary office-to-office, change with the gazette of public holidays, and would require maintenance we can't sustainably promise. The tool shows you the right office; phone it to confirm hours.

Three end-to-end scenarios. Try each one above — the result should match the steps shown here exactly.

• Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka — administrative divisions
• Census of Population and Housing 2012 — District Reports (population, area, GN counts)
• Ministry of Public Administration — DS office directory
• Administrative Divisions — Census of Population and Housing reference PDF

This directory was last cross-checked against the Census 2012 dataset and the Department of Public Administration office list on 2026-05-17. The page is reviewed quarterly and within 30 days of any new Department of Census and Statistics administrative-divisions release.