* No official global census: There's no global census specifically tracking language speakers.
* Varying definitions: What constitutes a "Tamil speaker" can be subjective. Do we include those who speak it as a second language, or only native speakers?
* Regional variation: Tamil is primarily spoken in India and Sri Lanka, with smaller communities in other countries.
However, we can estimate based on available data:
* India: Around 60 million people in India speak Tamil as their first language.
* Sri Lanka: Tamil is the main language for a significant portion of the Sri Lankan population, though numbers vary depending on the source.
* Global estimates: Some sources suggest that there are over 70 million Tamil speakers worldwide.
Without a precise global census, it's impossible to give a definitive percentage. However, we can confidently say that Tamil is spoken by tens of millions of people globally.