Government health services
Government hospitals, beds, health staff, patient visits and health expenditure.
- Records
- 130
- Vintage
- 2026 edition; observation years vary by table
- Last checked
- 16 October 2026
- Published by
- GovernmentDepartment of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka
What this dataset contains
Annual national Ministry of Health and Mass Media figures for 2016–2025, compiled in the DCS Pocket Book. Measures include hospitals, beds, central dispensaries and primary medical care units, doctors, assistant or registered medical practitioners, nurses, outpatient and inpatient visits, and expenditure. The source also provides beds, doctors, hospitals and expenditure per 100,000 people. Figures for 2024 are revised; 2025 is provisional.
How it is used here
Track government hospital beds or nominal health expenditure over time. Use the separately published population-standardised measures to compare capacity relative to population.
What it cannot tell you
Government services do not cover the entire private health sector. Hospital and bed counts exclude central dispensaries and primary medical care units except units with maternity homes; these outpatient units have a separate count. Doctor figures cover all grades in the Ministry of Health. Patient figures count visits, not unique people, and are reported in thousands. Expenditure includes capital expenditure, grants, rebates and contributions; the amounts are nominal and do not adjust for inflation. National figures do not measure geographic access, staffing distribution or quality.