# Why is Sri Lanka relatively wealthy for its area? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 7, 2014, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-sri-lanka-relatively-wealthy-for-its-area/697741 "2014-09-07T09:14:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2014, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-sri-lanka-relatively-wealthy-for-its-area/697741/21 "2014-09-09T16:27:20Z")
> [@IMfez](#): > > Looking up the GDP per capita figures for South Asia, I see that Pakistan has a GDP per capita of $1,300, India $1,500, Bangladesh $850, Nepal $700. and then there’s Sri Lanka, with a GDP per capita of almost $3,300. > > Can somebody tell me why Sri Lanka is doing so well compared to the other South Asians? I think the real question should be, how have those other countries managed to do even more badly than Sri Lanka? Assuming the figures from [here](http://kushnirs.org/macroeconomics/gdp/gdp_southern_asia.html) are correct (click through the individual countries in the table near the bottom) then the 1970 GDP/capita figures were: Sri Lanka - $197 India - $111 Pakistan - $222 Bangladesh - $105 Over 42 years a tenfold increase in GDP/head is a miserable performance, especially for a developing country. The UK managed double that in the same period despite being a mature economy struggling with deindustrialisation and whatnot. For comparison Malaysia has gone from $343 to $10,422 in 2012 (30x increase). Vietnam went from ~$63 in 1970 to $1716 in 2012 (27x). Being outperformed by a country that suffered a devastating war and decades of hard-core doctrinaire communism is a pretty good indicator that things are not going well. For real comedy, China grew GDP per head approx 54 times in the same time period. It started at $1 more than Indias and ended up at $6K versus $1.5K. My guess - while Sri Lanka has performed dismally over the last half-century or so, the others have done horrendously badly to even more conflict, corruption, and cack-handed political meddling in pretty much everything than has occurred in Sri Lanka. Ps. That site also has lots of nice country and region graphs showing “The World” accelerating off into the distance (if you look at e.g. South Asia or Africa) or The World being left far far behind (if you look at Europe, Americas, or specific countries like Singapore, Korea etc). Also some nice precalculated “what if X were as rich as Y” comparisons. ---
**Author:** ![truthSeeker2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7cd45c/32.png) [@truthSeeker2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/truthSeeker2)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-sri-lanka-relatively-wealthy-for-its-area/697741/22 "2014-09-11T14:41:52Z")
> [@Hector\_St\_Clare](#): > > Eh. > > Fertility rate (which is a more useful variable than birth rate, IMO) is no longer that high in India or Bangladesh. It’s actually lower in Bangladesh than in India, which suggests that religion per se isn’t the important variable (on a cross-national level it’s much more likely to be related to differences in women’s education). Fertility rate is 2.7 in India, 2.3 in Sri Lanka (I sort of doubt both numbers, especially India 's, but even if the India TFR is somewhat an underestimate, I doubt it’s _that_ much higher). As per 2011 census, TFS for India was 2.5x ( was \>3 in 2001) . It should be lesser than 2.5 atm. Read somewhere that Govt. has a target for reaching replacement rate (2.1) by 2017 but ofcourse population will start to stabilize many years after reaching 2.1 somewhere at 1.5 billion. See state-wise TFS here (Many relatively prosperous states are below 2) - > **[List of states and union territories of India by fertility rate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_states_ranking_by_fertility_rate)** > > This is a list of the states and union territories of India ranked in order of number of children born for each woman. > Recent surveys show that in majority of Indian states, fertility rate has fallen well below the replacement level of 2.1 and the country is fast approaching the replacement level itself. The total fertility rate of India in 2017 stood at 2.2. Due to the large population, poverty and strain on resources, the Indian government initiated population control efforts to decrease bi... ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-sri-lanka-relatively-wealthy-for-its-area/697741/23 "2014-09-11T21:21:25Z")
It should come as no surprize that more education and less kids means better lives (CIA)… Sri Lanka - Literacy 91.2%, Fertility rate 1.13 (107th) India - Literacy 74.4, Fertility rate 2.51 (80th) Bangladesh - Literacy 57.7, Fertility rate 2.45 (83rd) Pakistan - Literacy 55%, Fertility rate 2.86 (65th) ---
**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-sri-lanka-relatively-wealthy-for-its-area/697741/24 "2014-09-12T12:37:45Z")
> [@snowthx](#): > > It should come as no surprize that more education and less kids means better lives (CIA)… Or alternatively, that wealthier countries generally have better education systems and lower fertility rates… ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-sri-lanka-relatively-wealthy-for-its-area/697741/25 "2014-09-12T16:45:21Z")
> [@slaphead](#): > > Or alternatively, that wealthier countries generally have better education systems and lower fertility rates… Yes, it’s a vicious cycle. I am not sure which needs to come first, tho, or how it historically happens. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2014, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-sri-lanka-relatively-wealthy-for-its-area/697741/26 "2014-09-12T16:50:16Z")
It’s worth noting that India has a significant refugee population, including hundreds of thousands of Tamils. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-sri-lanka-relatively-wealthy-for-its-area/697741.md?page=1)