National Research Conference on Applied Social Statistics – (NRCASS) 2021 was held on 27^th of January, 2021 at the K1 012 hall of Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kelaniya.

It was organized by the Department of Social Statistics, University of Kelaniya for the 06^th consecutive time. Senior Lecturer Dr. Manjula Gunarathna, Head - Department of Social Statistics chaired the conference. This year, it was carried out in a virtual environment.NRCASS is a national conference, mainly focus on the undergraduates and young researchers from different universities in Sri Lanka. The objectives of NRCASS are to promote academic writing and academic presentation among undergraduates and young researchers in all the Universities in Sri Lanka and to provide an experience of a conference and to provide a National level platform for them to present their research work.The keynote address of this conference which was held under the theme “Qualitative Research in Social Sciences Perspectives”, was delivered by Senior Lecturer Dr. Ravi Dissanayake, Head - Department of Marketing Management, University of Kelaniya. Academic staff members of the Department of Social Statistics were present at the occasion both in-person and virtual.

There were 50 virtual presentations in 06 sessions on sub themes such as Bio-diversity and Sustainable Development, Demography and Population, Economic and Economic Development, International Affairs and Strategic Studies, Management and Business Studies, Mass Communication and Information Technology, Statistics and Social Sciences and Tourism and Trade.