Sri Lankan Americans (Sinhala:Sri Lankika Amerikanu,Tamil:Ilangkaī Amerikan) are Americans of full or partialSri Lankan ancestry. Sri Lankan Americans are persons of Sri Lankan origin from various Sri Lankan ethnic backgrounds. The people are classified asSouth Asian in origin.
Sri Lankans started arriving in the U.S. in larger numbers around the mid 1950s, but there is evidence from U.S. census records which proves that Sri Lankans first emigrated fromCeylon and arrived in the United States in earlier years, mostly between the 1880s and the 1890s.
In 1975, Sri Lankan immigrants were classified as belonging to a category which was separate from "otherAsian" for the first time. In that year, 432 Sri Lankans entered the United States.
According to theU.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service's records, in 1996, 1,277 Sri Lankans were naturalized. This included 615 who had arrived in 1995 and 254 who had arrived in 1994, compared with only 68 arrivals in 1993 and 17 before 1985.
The number increased to 14,448 in the 1990s in conjunction with theSri Lankan Civil War . An estimated 40% of Sri Lankan Americans areSri Lankan Tamils.[6] Sri Lankan Americans settled largely in cities.[7]
Sri Lankan Americans are generally educated and affluent. With a median income of $74,000, Sri Lankan Americans are the third most successful Asian American group (tied withJapanese Americans) in regards to income. Additionally, 57% of Sri Lankan Americans over the age of 25 have a bachelor's degree or more.[21]
^Those are traditions and denominations that trace their history back to theProtestant Reformation or otherwise heavily borrow from the practices and beliefs of theProtestant Reformers.
^abcdefThis is more of a movement then an institutionalized denomination.
^Denominations that don't fit in the subsets mentioned above.
^Those are traditions and denominations that trace their origin back to theGreat Awakenings and/or are joined together by a common belief that Christianity should be restored along the lines of what is known about the apostolic early church.
^The Holiness movement is an interdenominational movement that spreads over multiple traditions (Methodist, Quakers, Anabaptist, Baptist, etc.). However, here are mentioned only those denominations that are part of Restorationism as well as the Holiness movement, but are not part of any other Protestant tradition.
