According to the Indian census of 2011, there are approximately 33 million Malayalis in Kerala,[24] making up 97% of the total population of the state. Malayali minorities are also found in the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu, mainly in Kanyakumari district and Nilgiri district and Dakshina Kannada and Kodagu districts of Karnataka and also in other metropolitan areas of India. Over the course of the later half of the 20th century, significant Malayali communities have emerged in Persian Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait and to a lesser extent, other developed nations with a primarily immigrant background such as Malaysia, Singapore, the United States (US), the United Kingdom (UK), Australia, New Zealand and Canada. As of 2013, there were an estimated 1.6 million ethnic Malayali expatriates worldwide.[25] The estimated population of Malayalees in Malaysia in year 2020 is approximately 348,000, which makes up 12.5% of the total number of Indian population in Malaysia that makes them the second biggest Indian ethnic group in Malaysia, after the Tamils. Most of the Malayalee population in Malaysia aged 18 to 30 are known to be either the third, fourth, or fifth generation living as a Malaysian citizen. According to A. R. Raja Raja Varma, Malayalam was the name of the place, before it became the name of the language spoken by the people.[26]
^ ab"Kerala Migration Survey - 2014". The Indian Express. (This is the number of approximate emigrants from Kerala, which is closely related to, but different from the actual number of Malayalis.). No. 17 September 2014. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2014.
^ abcdZachariah, K. C. & Rajan, S. Irudaya (2011), Kerala Migration Survey 2011Archived 10 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine (PDF), Department of Non-resident Keralite Affairs, Government of Kerala, p. 29. This is the number of emigrants from Kerala, which is closely related to but different from the actual number of Malayalis /Malayalees.