Demography

Batticaloa is on the East coast, 314 km from Colombo. The population of 515,707 consists mainly of Tamils, Moors, Sinhalese, Euro-Asian Burghers(specifically Portuguese Burghers and Dutch Burghers) and indigenous Vedas population.
The District of Batticaloa itself consists of several administrative divisions, which are: Manmunai North, Manmunai West, Manmunai South West, Manmunai South & East Pattu, Manmunai Pattu, Koralai Pattu North, Porativu Pattu, Kattankudy, Eravur Pattu, Eravur Town, Koralai Pattu and Koralai Pattu West. Some 515,707 persons (50.9% female) were recorded in the 2000 census, constituting 128,689 families. Religion based statistics in the year 2000 are: Hindus 68%, Christians 5.9%, Muslims 25%, with a small numbers of Buddhists and others [Source: Department of Census & Statics, Sri Lanka]. These figures became even more polarized towards Hindus during the LTTE occupation which came to an end in 2007 (see Eelam War IV). (citation needed)
According to the 2001 census, the total population was 486,447. Of which 6,345 were Sinhalese, 362,431 Ceylonese Tamil, 727 Estate Tamil, 114,111 Moor, 2,696 Burgher and 21 Malay.