Municipal councils of Sri Lanka

There are 27 Municipal councils in Sri Lanka, which are the legislative bodies that preside over the largest cities and first tier municipalities in the country. Introduced in 1987 through the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of Sri Lanka, municipal councils became a devolved subject under the Provincial Councils in the Local Government system of Sri Lanka. Until 2025 municipal councils collectively governed 4.19 million people within a 698 square kilometre area. There were 445 Councillors in total, ranging from 53 to 9 per council.

Polonnaruwa Municipal Council was created on 30 June 2017, bifurcated from Thamankaduwa Pradeshiya Sabha.

A extraordinary gazette was published in 2022 to upgrade existing urban councils to municipal councils for the localities of Puttalam, Trincomalee, Vavuniya, Kegalle and Kalutara. Following the conclusion of the Local Government elections in 2025, the municipal councils for the new localities commenced operations.

Municipal councils

Parties

  United National Party   Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna   Illankai Tamil Arasu Kachchi   National Congress   Sri Lanka Freedom Party   National People's Power (NPP)   Independent   Samagi Jana Balawegaya

Province	District		Municipal council		Municipality	Established/ Elevated	No. of Councillors	Mayor		Area (km^2)	Population (2024)	Website
Western	1	Colombo	1	Colombo	Colombo	1865	117 (2)		(List)	37	394,533	cmc.lk
			2	Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia	Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia	1959	54 (6)		(List)	21	138,460	dmmc.lk
			3	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte	1997	39 (1)		(List)	17	77,162	kotte.mc.gov.lk
			4	Kaduwela	Kaduwela	2011	47 (1)		(List)	87	204,547	kaduwela.mc.gov.lk
			5	Moratuwa	Moratuwa	1997	52 (4)		(List)	23	122,567	moratuwa.mc.gov.lk
	2	Gampaha	6	Negombo	Negombo	1950	49 (1)		(List)	31	117,756	negombo.mc.gov.lk
			7	Gampaha	Gampaha		28 (2)		(List)	38	53,775	gampaha.mc.gov.lk
North Western	3	Kurunegala	8	Kurunegala	Kurunegala	1952	22 (1)		(List)	11	21,621	kurunegala.mc.gov.lk
Central	4	Kandy	9	Kandy	Kandy	1865	46 (5)		(List)	27	85,000	www.kandymc.org
	5	Matale	10	Matale	Matale	1947	22 (1)		(List)	26	31,888
			11	Dambulla	Dambulla	2011	22 (1)		(List)	58	20,267
	6	Nuwara Eliya	12	Nuwara Eliya	Nuwara Eliya	1949	25 (2)		(List)	12	19,274	nuwaraeliya.mc.gov.lk
Uva	7	Badulla	13	Badulla	Badulla		27 (2)		(List)	10	34,842
			14	Bandarawela	Bandarawela	2011	16 (1)		(List)	27	20,481
Southern	8	Galle	15	Galle	Galle		36 (1)		(List)	17	75,429	galle.mc.gov.lk
	9	Matara	16	Matara	Matara		30		(List)	13	60,976
	10	Hambantota	17	Hambantota	Hambantota	2011	21		(List)	83	18,759
Sabaragamuwa	11	Ratnapura	18	Ratnapura	Ratnapura		27 (2)		(List)	20	39,381
North Central	12	Anuradhapura	19	Anuradhapura	Anuradhapura		26 (3)		(List)	36	38,188
	13	Polonnaruwa	20	Polonnaruwa	Polonnaruwa	2017	16 (5)		(List)	30.29	27,791	https://mcpolonnaruwa.lk/
Northern	14	Jaffna	21	Jaffna	Jaffna	1949	45		(List)	20	63,045	jaffnamc.lk
Eastern	15	Batticaloa	22	Batticaloa	Batticaloa	1967	34 (4)		(List)	75	70,124	www.batticaloa.mc.gov.lk
	16	Ampara	23	Kalmunai	Kalmunai	2001	41		(List)	23	99,893
			24	Akkaraipattu	Akkaraipattu	2011	22 (2)		(List)	7	27,760

Akkaraipattu

Anuradhapura

Badulla

Bandarawela

Batticaloa

Colombo

Dambulla

Dehiwala-Mount Lavinia

Galle

Gampaha

Hambantota

Jaffna

Kaduwela

Kalmunai

Kalutara

Kandy

Kegalle

Kurunegala

Matale

Matara

Moratuwa

Negombo

Nuwara Eliya

Polonnaruwa

Puttalam

Ratnapura

Kotte

Trincomalee

Vavuniya