Sri Lanka’s total migration departures for 2025 declined by only 1.23% from the all-time high recorded in 2024, with 310,915 migration departures recorded last year (2025), and with a majority of departures continuing to be led by skilled migration (76%), data from the Q4 Quarterly Bulletin of Workers’ Remittances and Labour Migration in 2025 released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka shows.
Further, though skilled migration declined by 1.2% in 2025, from the 77.7% recorded in 2024, skilled migration overwhelmingly continues to lead the charge in employment migration.
Sri Lanka Bureau of Foreign Employment (SLBFE) Chairperson Koshala Wickremasinghe, representing the agency’s previous view of an anticipated significant decline in departures to once again reach below pre-crisis levels, in December 2025 forecasted that departures were to once again cross the 300,000 threshold.
Speaking to Derana on Rebuild Sri Lanka show he said: “Last year the total number of migrants who left were around 314,000 individuals. By around the middle of 2025, we surmised that this figure would not cross 300,000. However, by now around 277,000 individuals have migrated, and it is likely that migration levels will cross 300,000 migrants this year too,” Wickremasinghe said.
“If you take migration data from 2019 onwards, the highest migration levels were recorded in 2024. It is likely that migration levels of 2025 are to match this figure,” Wickremasinghe said, explaining the agency’s updated view.
Based on the percentage data shared on skilled migration departures each year from the total cumulative departures since 2022, it can be estimated that Sri Lanka has seen roughly around 791,000 skilled labour departures in the past four years.
It is also important to note that from 2022, the SLBFE has reclassified worker categories. The specific percentage data on migration of professional-level migrants, clerical and related migrants, middle-level occupation migrants, low-skilled, skilled, and semi-skilled migrants have now been amalgamated into two categories: Low-skilled and Skilled migrant categories.
Occupation wise, the consolidated “skilled” category includes professionals, technical, clerical and other skilled trades. The “low-skilled” category represents blue-collar workers, domestic workers and other basic service roles.
The highest estimated number of skilled departures during this four-year period was in 2024, with approximately 244,600 workers.