The first census conducted in the area since 1981, has shown that the population of the Jaffna district, where ethnic Tamils form the majority had contracted at a rate of 0.74 per cent to 583,017 from 734,474.
Mullaitivu in the north where the now defunct LTTE a had a large military base during the 30-year campaign with 92,228 people is the district having lowest population. While Mannar, another conflict plagued district in the north, was the next lowest with 99,063.
However, the census showed that the nation's population grew at an average rate of 1.0 per cent from 1981 to 2012 with the total reaching 20.277 million from 14.846 million.
The census was carried out between February 27 and March 21 of this year.
A major share of 28.8 per cent of the population live in the western province while only 5.2 per cent of the total population live in the northern province.
Out of the 25 districts in the island only two districts, Colombo and Gampaha both in the western province have recorded over 2 million population.
The highest average annual population growth rate of 1.33 per cent had been recorded in the north central province's Anuradhapura district.
Nuwara Eliya and Badulla districts in the central hill country with a predominant Indian-origin Tamil population have reported low growth rates of 0.05 and 0.37 pr cent.
All districts in the northern province except Jaffna district and Moneragala district in the southeast have population density less than 100 persons per square kilometre.
