Sinhalese people
Sinhalese සිංහල ජාතිය A Sinhalese man in Mumbai, India in 1897 Total population c. 17 million [1] Regions with significant populations Sri Lanka 15,173,820 (74.88%) (2012) [2] United Kingdom ~100,000 (2010) [3] Australia 85,000 (2016) [4] Italy ~56,000 (2016) [5] Canada 19,830 (2006) [6] US 41,000 (2016) [7] [ unreliable source? ] Singapore 25,000 (2016) [8] Malaysia 10,000 (2009) [9] New Zealand 7,257 (2006) [10] India 4,100 [11] [12] Languages Sinhala · English Religion Theravada Buddhist majority Christian/Catholic Related ethnic groups Ethnic groups in northeast South Asia [13] Tamils (especially Sri Lankan Tamils) [13] Austro-Asiatic peoples [14] The Sinhalese (Sinhala: සිංහල ජාතිය Sinhala Jathiya , also known as Hela ) are an Indo-Aryan-speaking ethnic group native to the island of Sri Lanka. [15] They constitute about 75% of the Sri Lankan population and number greater than 16.2 million. [1] [2] The Sinhalese identity is based on language, hi...