The Jaffna kingdom appears to have had a similar administrative structure to this with four provinces. The korales had their own civil and military officials with a small militia. The territory of the Kotte Kingdom was organized into four disavas, which were further subdivided into forty korales. However, with the country eventually being divided into more than one kingdom and with foreign colonial missions landing and taking parts of the country under their control, this structure began to change.

Over time, the number of provinces increased, but the second-level administrative division continued to be the rata.

These were further subdivided into smaller units called rata. The kingdom was divided into three provinces Rajarata, Ruhuna and Malaya Rata. The country was first divided into several administrative units during the Anuradhapura Kingdom. There are 331 DS divisions in the country. A district is divided into a number of Divisional Secretary's Divisions (commonly known as DS divisions), which are in turn subdivided into 14,022 grama niladhari divisions. The district secretariat is also responsible for implementing and monitoring development projects at the district level and assisting lower-level subdivisions in their activities, as well as revenue collection and coordination of elections in the district. The main tasks of the district secretariat involve coordinating communications and activities of the central government and divisional secretariats.

Each district is administered under a district secretary, who is appointed by the central government. There are 25 districts organized into 9 provinces. In Sri Lanka, districts ( Sinhala: а¶Їа·’а·ѓа·Ља¶а·ЉвЂЌа¶»а·’вЂЊа¶ља·ЉвЂЊа¶љ, romanized: Distrikka, Tamil: а®®а®ѕа®µа®џаЇЌа®џа®®аЇЌ, romanized: MДЃvaб№б№am) are the second-level administrative divisions, and are included in a province.

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