Ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan

This article is about the ethnic minorities in Azerbaijan.

Ethnicities of Azerbaijan (2024, after the collapse of the breakaway Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and the flight of Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians in 2023).

Ethnicities of Azerbaijan (1994-2020, after the First Nagorno-Karabakh War and before the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War).

Data

Although more than 94% of the people are ethnic Azerbaijanis, Azerbaijan has many ethnic minorities including Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Jews and other minorities. However, the numbers of most of these ethnic minorities are small.

History

After the end of the Soviet Union with the independence of Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh War, almost all Armenians (outside the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh) fled or were deported from the country. At the same time, almost all Azerbaijanis fled or were deported from Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh.

Most Russians and other minorities have also left the country and are continuing to leave. As a result, Azerbaijan has become ethnically more "pure".

Population of Azerbaijan according to ethnic group 1926–2009

Ethnic group	Census 19261		Census 19392		Census 19593		Census 19704		Census 19795		Census 19896		Census 19996		Census 2009
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Azerbaijanis	1,437,977	62.1	1,870,471	58.4	2,494,381	67.5	3,776,778	73.8	4,708,832	78.1	5,804,980	82.7	7,205,464	90.6	8,172,800	91.6
Lezgins	37,263	1.6	111,666	3.5	98,211	2.7	137,250	2.7	158,057	2.6	171,395	2.4	178,021	2.2	180,300	2.02
Armenians	282,004	12.2	388,025	12.1	442,089	12.0	483,520	9.4	475,486	7.9	390,505	5.6	120,7458	1.5	120,3008	1.35
Russians	220,545	9.5	528,318	16.5	501,282	13.6	510,059	10.0	475,255	7.9	392,304	5.6	141,687	1.8	119,300	1.35
Talysh	77,323	3.3	87,510	2.7	85	0.0					21,169	0.3	76,841	1.0	112,000	1.26
Avars	19,104	0.8	15,740	0.5	17,254	0.5	30,735	0.6	35,991	0.6	44,072	0.6	50,871	0.6	49,800	0.56
Turks	95	0.0	600	0.0	202	0.0	8,491	0.2	7,926	0.1	17,705	0.3	43,454	0.5	38,000	0,43
Tatars	9,948	0.4	27,591	0.9	29,370	0.8	31,353	0.6	31,204	0.5	28,019	0.4	30,011	0.4	25,900	0,29
Tat	28,443	1.2	2,289	0.1	5,887	0.2	7,769	0.2	8,848	0.1	10,239	0.1	10,922	0.1	25,200	0.28
Ukrainians	18,241	0.8	23,643	0.7	25,778	0.7	29,160	0.6	26,402	0.4	32,345	0.5	28,984	0.4	21,500	0,24
Tsakhurs	15,552	0.7	6,464	0.2	2,876	0.1	6,208	0.1	8,546	0.1	13,318	0.2	15,877	0.2	12,300	0.14
Udins	2,445	0.1			3,202	0.1	5,492	0.1	5,841	0.1	6,125	0.1	4,152	0.1	3,800	0.04
Georgians	9,500	0.4	10,196	0.3	9,526	0.3	13,595	0.3	11,412	0.2	14,197	0.2	14,877	0.2	9,900	0.11
Jews	20,578	0.9	41,245	1.3	40,198	1.1	48,652	1.0	35,487	0.6	30,792	0.4	8,916	0.1	9,100	0.1
Kurds	41,1937	1.8	6,005	0.2	1,487	0.0	5,488	0.1	5,676	0.1	12,226	0.2	13,075	0.2	6,100	0.07
Others	94,360	4.1	85,387	2.7	25,889	0.7	22,531	0.4	31,552	0.5	31,787	0.5	9,541	0.1	9,500	0.11
Total	2,314,571		3,205,150		3,697,717		5,117,081		6,026,515		7,021,178		7,953,438		8,922,400
1 Source: [1]. 2 Source: [2]. 3 Source: [3]. 4 Source: [4]. 5 Source: [5]. 6 Source: [6]. 7 Almost all Armenians live in the break-away region of Nagorno-Karabakh since the early 1990s.