More than 8.6 million Sri Lankans aged 15 and above were outside the labour force in 2025, according to the Department of Census and Statistics.

The figure was 8,625,859 people, representing 50.6% of the population aged 15 and above. The labour-force participation rate was 49.4%.

Women accounted for 6.19 million of those outside the labour force, compared with 2.44 million men. Female labour-force participation was 32.4%, compared with 69.1% for men.

The overall unemployment rate was 3.9%, with 329,211 people unemployed. The rate was higher among women at 6.1%, compared with 2.8% among men.