Up Country Tamils: Charting a New Future in Sri Lanka Table 1: Comparison of Socioeconomic Status in the Estate Sector – 2016 Indicators Mean Salary per month (Rs) Mean household income per month (Rs) National Urban Rural Estate - 39,195 30,439 15,899 62,237 88,692 58,137 34,804 Mean per capita income per month (Rs) 16,377 22,297 15,508 8566 Income receiver’s mean income per month (Rs) 33,894 46,383 32,134 16,940 No. of income receivers in the household (%) 1.8 1.9 1.8 2.0 Household size (%) 3.8 4 3.8 4.1 54,999 77,337 51,377 44,851 Poverty headcount (%) 4.1 1.9 4.3 8.8 Unemployment (%) 4.4 4.0 4.5 3.1 University Education (%) 6 - - 0.3 Mean nominal household expenditure per month (Rs) Population that own a house (%) 83.7 - 90.4 5.6 Representation in civil service (%) 22% - - 1.1 Literacy (%) 93.1 95 93 85 Computer literacy (%) 21.6 35 19.9 6 Population with no schooling (%) 4 3 4 12 Population with O/L or equivalent (%) 17 21 17 7 Share of population with access to clean water (%) 82.8 - 84.3 55.1 Share of households without access to toilet (%) 1.7 0.2 1.8 4.6 Infant mortality rate (per 1000 live births) (%) 9.7 - - 29 Low birth weight children (%) 16.6 - - 31 Proportion of stunted growth children under 05 years (%) 18 - - 40.8 Source: The author compiled the above table using various sources including the Ten-Year Development Plan (Ministry of Hill Country New Villages and Community Development 2016); Department of Census and Statistics (2017), World Bank, (2016) and Sri Lanka Tea Industry in Transition: 150 Years and Beyond (Wijayasiri, Arunatilake and Kelegama 2017). 28