Out of every 100 people in Tamil Nadu, 88 named Tamil as their mother tongue in the 2011 Census, and the other 12 were spread across more than a dozen languages, led by Telugu. The exact figure, from the Census of India’s 2011 language tables, is 8,837 Tamil speakers in every 10,000 people.
The rest of the 100 is where the surprise lies. About six people speak Telugu at home, nearly two speak Kannada, nearly two speak Urdu and one speaks Malayalam. Kannada edges out Urdu by just three people in 10,000. Census 2011 is still the latest completed count, so this is the state’s language map as it stood in 2011.
- Each figure stands for one person in 100 living in Tamil Nadu in 2011. A part-coloured figure is a fraction of a person.
- Rows run from the largest mother tongue to the smallest. “Others” groups Hindi, Gujarati, Marathi and smaller languages.
- Mother tongue is the language a person names when asked by the enumerator. It does not count second or third languages a person speaks.
Tamil first, then the neighbours’ languages
The order after Tamil follows Tamil Nadu’s borders and history. Telugu, the language of Andhra Pradesh, is far ahead at 587 per 10,000 people. Kannada, from Karnataka to the west, is at 178 and Urdu at 175. Malayalam, the language of Kerala, is at 101. These are long-settled communities as well as more recent arrivals, and the state recognises them: the Tamil Nadu Minorities Welfare Department’s policy note lists Telugu, Urdu, Kannada, Malayalam, Sourashtra and Marathi speakers as notified linguistic minorities.
Below Malayalam the numbers fall away fast. Hindi was the mother tongue of 55 in 10,000 people in 2011, Gujarati 38 and Marathi 12. Bengali and Odia were 3 each. Only 48,715 people, 0.07% of the state, gave a mother tongue outside the 22 scheduled languages.
Roughly how many Tamil Nadu residents named English as their mother tongue in 2011, second only to Maharashtra among states, The News Minute reported from the Census release.
Where else Tamil is spoken at home
Tamil is not only a Tamil Nadu language. Puducherry is almost as Tamil-speaking as the state itself, at 8,822 per 10,000 people. The Andaman and Nicobar Islands come next at 1,520 per 10,000, then Karnataka at 345, Kerala at 150 and Andhra Pradesh at 84, all in the same Census statement. Across India, 6,90,26,881 people named Tamil as their mother tongue, 5.70% of the country.
A report on the same data, carried by Madhyamam from The Indian Express, found that about 92.4% of India’s Tamil speakers live in Tamil Nadu, and that the state had the lowest rate of multilingualism in the country, with 28.3% of residents bilingual.
The numbers behind the graphic
| Mother tongue | Speakers per 10,000, Tamil Nadu | Share of Tamil Nadu (%) |
|---|---|---|
| Tamil | 8,837 | 88.37 |
| Telugu | 587 | 5.87 |
| Kannada | 178 | 1.78 |
| Urdu | 175 | 1.75 |
| Malayalam | 101 | 1.01 |
| Hindi | 55 | 0.55 |
| Gujarati | 38 | 0.38 |
| Marathi | 12 | 0.12 |
| Bengali / Odia | 3 / 3 | 0.03 / 0.03 |
| All others (in pictogram) | 122 | 1.22 |
| Non-scheduled languages | 48,715 people | 0.07 |
| Tamil per 10,000: Puducherry / Andaman and Nicobar / Karnataka / Kerala / Andhra Pradesh | 8,822 / 1,520 / 345 / 150 / 84 | – |
Source: Census of India 2011, Language: India, States and Union Territories (Table C-16), Statements 2, 3 and 4, Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, released 2018. “All others” is 100 minus the five largest shares.
About the data
The figures come from the Census 2011 language tables, released in 2018. The Census groups thousands of raw answers into mother tongues and then into languages, so a dialect may be counted under a larger language. Only the 22 scheduled languages are shown by name here. Shares are published per 10,000 people and are rounded.
A Chennai-only breakdown is published in the district mother tongue tables, but we could not open them on the Census website, so this piece stays at state level rather than estimating the city. The second and third languages people speak, which the Census also records, are not shown in the graphics.
Quick answers
What percentage of Tamil Nadu speaks Tamil as a mother tongue?
88.37% in Census 2011, or 8,837 in every 10,000 people.
What is the second most common mother tongue in Tamil Nadu?
Telugu, at 5.87%, followed by Kannada (1.78%), Urdu (1.75%) and Malayalam (1.01%).
How many people in India speak Tamil as a mother tongue?
6,90,26,881 in Census 2011, or 5.70% of India’s population.
Information checked against official sources on 21 October 2026. Figures can be revised; confirm on the linked official pages before relying on them.
Sources
- Census of India 2011, Language: India, States and Union Territories, Table C-16 (Office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner)
- Minorities Welfare Department Policy Note 2021-22 (Government of Tamil Nadu)
- What India speaks: South Indian languages are growing, but not as fast as Hindi (The News Minute, June 2018)
- Tamil thrived in South, while Tamil Nadu ranked lowest in multilingualism: report (Madhyamam, March 2025)
