In brief
The largest documented number lives in India: 34,838,819 people (census 2011, mother tongue).
Main language: Malayalam. Glottolog classifies it in the Dravidian family.
Where they live: censuses and official statistics
Each figure comes from the country's official census or official statistical survey (in the USA: the American Community Survey). Countries define belonging differently (nationality, citizenship, mother tongue, ancestry); the type is given on each row. The USA, Canada and Australia record ancestry, and people may report more than one. Many countries (France and Germany, for example) do not record ethnicity, so they are absent here.
India
34,838,819
Languages and their lineage
Malayalam
- Dravidiandrav1251
- South Dravidiansout3133
- South Dravidian Isout3138
- Tamil-Kannadatami1291
- Tamil-Kotatami1292
- Tamil-Todatami1293
- Tamil-Irulatami1294
- Tamil-Kodagutami1297
- Tamil-Malayalamtami1298
- Malayalamoidmala1541
- Malayalammala1464
People-to-language links: Wikidata (properties P103 and P2936), checked against ISO 639-3 codes. Language classification: Glottolog 5.3.
Peoples of the same language family
Sources
- Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Census of India 2011, Paper 1 of 2018, Language: India, States and Union Territories (Table C-16), Statement 1 and Statement 4. https://new.census.gov.in/nada/index.php/catalog/42458/download/46089/C-16_25062018.pdf
- Hammarström H., Forkel R., Haspelmath M., Bank S. (2026). Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. glottolog.org (CC BY 4.0)