Belonging does not rule out leaving
Global Unites South Asia and the Centenary Movement gathered responses from 2,418 people across Sri Lanka's 25 districts for the "My Sri Lanka | Next" study. The research, reported by EconomyNext, also included 22 provincial consultations focused on the concerns of Gen Z and younger Millennials.
For 80 percent of respondents, Sri Lankan was their primary identity. Yet even within the group reporting strong national belonging, 42.4 percent were willing to leave. Among Gen Z respondents, the share willing to migrate reached 52.7 percent.
Willingness to emigrate was also higher among people who reported experiencing discrimination: 55.8 percent, compared with 37.0 percent among those who did not.
The authors cautioned that these responses measure intentions, not actual departures. They said the findings underscore the urgent need to make a viable future possible for young people within Sri Lanka.
Financial pressure and limited job prospects
Financial stress or difficulty affected 69.8 percent of respondents, while 16.6 percent struggled to pay for basic necessities. The regional figures showed financial stress at 84.3 percent in the Northern Province, 78.3 percent in the Eastern Province and 63.5 percent in the Western Province.
Separate World Bank projections illustrate the employment challenge. In an August 12, 2026 feature, the bank estimated that nearly one million young Sri Lankans would enter the formal workforce over the following decade. If current trends continue, it projected only about 300,000 new formal jobs, leaving roughly seven in 10 young entrants facing an uncertain future.
The same World Bank feature highlighted a gap between women's education and workforce participation. Women represent more than 60 percent of university graduates, but only one in three participates in the labor force, a rate among the lowest in South Asia.
Unemployment is particularly high among young people with postsecondary education. International Monetary Fund data put the rate for that group, ages 15 to 24, at 43 percent—the highest in a comparison of 12 Asia-Pacific economies and more than twice Sri Lanka's overall youth unemployment rate of 19.5 percent for 2025. The data were presented at the IMF's April 2026 Asia-Pacific regional outlook briefing and reproduced in the September 2026 edition of its Finance & Development magazine.
Recorded departures and brain drain
Beyond the survey's measures of intent, Central Bank of Sri Lanka figures reported by The Morning document substantial migration. A record 314,673 Sri Lankans left for foreign employment in 2024. Skilled workers accounted for more than 75 percent of those departures, compared with 66 percent in 2022. Another 62,145 Sri Lankans emigrated in the first quarter of 2026.
The Fund for Peace's 2024 Human Flight and Brain Drain Index placed Sri Lanka 16th among 175 countries and identified it as the South Asian country most severely affected by brain drain.
A call to address youth grievances
At the study's launch, Global Unites founder and president Prashan De Visser urged Sri Lanka to address young people's grievances before earlier patterns of violence recur.
"As we look at Sri Lanka, our initial studies showed that almost every 15 to 18 years, we've experienced cycles of violence. And we are sitting at an 18-year mark."
Sri Lanka's history includes the youth-led Marxist JVP insurrection of 1971, the start of a 26-year civil war against the LTTE in 1983, and a second JVP insurrection that resurfaced in 1989, according to the Transitional Justice Evaluation Tools country report, last updated in May 2024.
De Visser called on the civic leaders attending the launch to help create conditions in which younger generations can thrive. "Sri Lanka deserves better. Our children deserve better. We have the power to be part of that change, and that is what today is all about," he said.
