Indralal De Silva obtained his Bachelor’s Degree in Development Studies (majoring in Statistics) from the University of Colombo in 1977, joined the Department of Demography in 1979, and served four decades at the University of Colombo. He received a Diploma in Population Studies in 1980 from the International Institute of Population Sciences (Deemed University), Mumbai with a scholarship from the UN-ESCAP. He obtained MA and PhD from the Australian National University in 1985 and 1990 respectively, with scholarships from the same university. He was appointed as Associate Professor in Demography in 1995, and the Founder Chair Professor of Demography in 2001 a position he held for 17 years at the University.

In recognition of his administrative contribution to the University, he was appointed to the post of Dean of the Faculty of Arts and functioned during 2009-2011 and acted as Vice Chancellor of the University of Colombo on several occasions. He served as the Head of the Department of Demography for approximately six years and also functioned as a Senior Research Fellow in the National Centre for Advanced Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences (NCAS) of UGC in 2014, 2015 and 2018.

He was offered a number of prestige fellowships, including the Senior Fulbright, Takemi and Rockefeller Foundation and ARI/National University of Singapore. With these recognitions, he has functioned as a Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore in 2004, Harvard School of Public Health during 1996-1998 and at the Australian National University during 1990-1991.

He has published a significant number of books, monographs, chapters and has presented over 100 research papers in many international and local conferences. He has also published over 100 research articles in reputed local and international journals, and achieved by now about 1100 Google Scholar Citations, which boost the status and recognition of the University of Colombo.