What would a basic income cost in Sri Lanka?
Pick a country, who gets it and how much a month. Everything is calculated on this device; nothing is sent anywhere.
Total cost per year
1.93 trillion Sri Lankan rupees
about 6.42 billion US dollars
21.8 million people × 7,400 Sri Lankan rupees a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2023)32.7%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2023)53.3%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2023)59.7%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)5.9%
Sri Lanka in numbers
Sri Lanka has a population of 21.8 million (2025) and a GDP of 32.8 trillion Sri Lankan rupees (about 109 billion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone 7,400 Sri Lankan rupees a month would cost 1.93 trillion Sri Lankan rupees a year (about 6.42 billion US dollars), or 5.9% of GDP. That equals 32.7% of central government expense (2023), 53.3% of its revenue (2023), and 59.7% of its tax revenue (2023).
Children only (under 18: 6.12 million) would cost 544 billion Sri Lankan rupees a year (1.7% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 15.6 million), 1.39 trillion Sri Lankan rupees (4.2%).
Default amount: 7,400 Sri Lankan rupees a month is the World Bank's international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), converted into Sri Lankan rupees with the World Bank's PPP conversion factor for household consumption (2025) and rounded to two significant figures. It is a reference point, not a policy proposal; change it above.
How to read this
This is the gross cost: the total paid out. The real net cost depends on which taxes fund it, which benefits or tax breaks it replaces and whether the payment is taxed. The population, budget and GDP figures are not all from the same year (see the sources).
Sources for the figures
- Population
- World Bank: population, total (SP.POP.TOTL), and population by single year of age 0 to 17 (SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN), 2025
- SP.POP.AG00.FE.IN … SP.POP.AG17.MA.IN
- Government expense and tax revenue
- World Bank: central government expense, revenue excluding grants and tax revenue, % of GDP (GC.XPN.TOTL.GD.ZS, GC.REV.XGRT.GD.ZS, GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS), 2023
- Default amount
- World Bank: international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), June 2025 update
- World Bank: PPP conversion factor, household final consumption (PA.NUS.PRVT.PP), 2025
- Retrieved from the World Bank API on November 9, 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Government figures are central government, as a share of GDP in their own year, applied to the latest GDP.