Tamil people

தமிழர்
Tamils

Total population
77,000,000  [1]
Regions with significant populations
India	60,793,814 (2001)[2]
Sri Lanka	4,092,676 (2001) [3]
Malaysia	2,900,000 (2007)[4]
Canada	200,000 (2007)[5]
Singapore	436,550 (2006)
Languages
Tamil
Religion
88% Hindu, 6% Muslim, 5.5% Christian.
Related ethnic groups
Dravidians · Telugus  · Kannadigas · Tuluvas  · Malayalis  · Giraavarus[6]  · Sinhalese[7]

The Tamil people are an ethnic group from South Asia. Traditionally, they have been living in the southern parts of India, and the northeastern parts of Sri Lanka.

The Tamil people number around 74 million in the world. Of that, there are about 63,000,000 in India; about 3,600,000 live in Sri Lanka; about 2,900,000 live in Malaysia; and about 430,000 live in Singapore. The remaining Tamil people live in many other places. Other peoples are related to the Tamil people by language, culture, and ancestry. Some of them are Brahui people, Kannadigas, Malayalis, Telugu people and Tuluvas. Tamil people, are not closely related to people in the Middle East and Europe, except the Romani people.^[8]

Tamil people identify themselves with their language, Tamil and their rich culture and literature. In recent times, they have broadened the definition of Tamil people. They now also include descendants of Tamil speaking people even when they no longer speak Tamil language.

1. ↑ "Top 30 Languages by Number of Native Speakers: sourced from Ethnologue: Languages of the World, 15th ed. (2005)". Vistawide - World Languages & Cultures. Retrieved 2007-04-03.
2. ↑ "Indian Census - Abstract of Strength of Mother Tongues". Indian Census, 2001. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
3. ↑ "Brief Analysis of Population and Housing Characteristics" (PDF). Sri Lanka census of population and housing 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2008-02-16. Retrieved 2008-01-07.
4. ↑ "Ethnologue report for language code tam". Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Retrieved 2007-07-31.
5. ↑ "Tamils: Population in Canada (2007)". Ryerson University. Archived from the original on 2008-02-14. Retrieved 2008-02-19.
6. ↑ Cite error: The named reference maloney was used but no text was provided for refs named (see the help page).
7. ↑ Kshatriya, G.K. (1995). "Genetic affinities of Sri Lankan populations". Human Biology. 67 (6). American Association of Anthropological Genetics: 843–66. PMID 8543296.
8. ↑ Pakstis, Andrew J.; Gurkan, Cemal; Dogan, Mustafa; Balkaya, Hasan Emin; Dogan, Serkan; Neophytou, Pavlos I.; Cherni, Lotfi; Boussetta, Sami; Khodjet-El-Khil, Houssein (2019-07-08). "Genetic relationships of European, Mediterranean, and SW Asian populations using a panel of 55 AISNPs". European Journal of Human Genetics. 27 (12): 1885–1893. doi:10.1038/s41431-019-0466-6. ISSN 1476-5438. PMC 6871633. PMID 31285530.