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Ethnicity, Language, & Religion of Azerbaijan


Most of the citizens of Azerbaijan are ethnically Azerbaijani (or Azeri), which is an ethnic group that is primarily a combination of Turks, Caucasian groups, Albanians, and Persians. The closest of these many relatives is probably the Turks, including the ethnic Turks in Turkey as well as the Turkic people of Central Asia (Turkmens, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Kyrgyzs). They are also related, to varying degrees to the ethnic Persians in Iran, and numerous ethnic groups within the Caucus Mountains. The most notable ethnic minority in Azerbaijan are the Armenians, most of who live in the region of Nagorno-Karabakh. The governments of Armenia and Azerbaijan continue to debate governance over this region, but it is controlled by Azerbaijan.


Azerbaijani is the official language of Azerbaijan; this is a Turkic language related to both Turkish and the Turkish languages of Central Asia. Its closest linguistic relatives are Turkish and Turkmen as well as numerous smaller languages; it is currently written with the Latin script, but under Soviet times was written in Cyrillic.

Russian and English are common second languages in the country. Russian was taught to everyone under Soviet rule and is still commonly understood by the older generation who grew up under Soviet rule. English is slowly becoming the most popular second language in the country as it is commonly taught in schools and most of the country's younger generation learns and speaks this language to varying degrees.


Nearly every Azerbaijani is Muslim, while some minority ethnic groups (Russians and Armenians) are Christian, although these people make up a very small percentage of the people. Perhaps due to the Soviet's atheist rule, few Azerbaijanis are practicing.



This page was last updated: May, 2014