How many people speak Malayalam?

It's difficult to give an exact number for how many people speak Malayalam. This is because there isn't a single, universally accepted source for this information.

However, we can look at some estimates:

* Ethnologue, a widely respected language resource, estimates that around 35 million people speak Malayalam as a native language. This includes speakers in Kerala, India, as well as those in other countries with significant Malayali communities.

* The Census of India provides data on languages spoken, but it doesn't specifically separate Malayalam from other Dravidian languages.

Therefore, while an exact number is hard to pin down, it's safe to say that tens of millions of people speak Malayalam worldwide.