How many languages belong to the Dravidian language family?

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Thematic map of South Asia showing the distribution of Dravidian languages, with different regions shaded or marked to indicate where specific Dravidian languages and subgroups are spoken. Most languages are concentrated in southern and central India, with some northern outliers in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and eastern India. A key identifies the languages by number and subgroup, and striped areas indicate regions where several subgroups overlap. — Dravidian languages Distribution of Dravidian languages.

The Dravidian languages consist of approximately 70 languages spoken primarily in South Asia. These languages are spoken by more than 215 million people across India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.1

The family is categorized into South, South-Central, Central, and North groups, which are further organized into 24 subgroups. Among these, the four major literary languages—Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, and Kannada—are recognized by the Constitution of India.1