Dravidian · ISO 639-3 tam · ta
Tamil Language தமிழ்
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken by about 82 million people in 7 countries. It is an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore. It is written in the Tamil, Grantha and Latin scripts.
Where Tamil is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Tamil
About the Tamil language
Tamil (தமிழ்) is spoken by about 82 million people, which makes it the 24th most spoken language in the world — just behind Caribbean Javanese (82 million) and ahead of Yue Chinese (79 million). It belongs to the Dravidian language family and, more precisely, to the Tamil-Paliyan group within the South Dravidian I branch.
Where is Tamil spoken?
Tamil is used in 7 countries. The largest communities live in India (83 million), Sri Lanka (3.3 million), United Kingdom (2.2 million), Malaysia (1.5 million) and Singapore (295,394).
Share of the population that speaks Tamil: India 5.9% (83 million), Sri Lanka 15% (3.3 million), United Kingdom 3.2% (2.2 million), Malaysia 4.2% (1.5 million), Singapore 4.9% (295,394) and Canada 0.7% (252,166).
Tamil is an official language in 2 countries: Sri Lanka and Singapore. It also has regional official status in India.
Writing system and status
Tamil is written in the Tamil, Grantha and Latin scripts. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Malayalam, Kannada and Tulu.
ISO codes: ISO 639-1 ta, ISO 639-3 tam.
Frequently asked questions about Tamil
How many people speak Tamil?
Where is Tamil spoken?
In which countries is Tamil an official language?
What language family does Tamil belong to?
What is Tamil called in Tamil?
Is Tamil an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.