North Caucasus Observatory

2021 census · 1 Oct 2021[23][3]

Share of residents who stated their ethnicity in the census.

• Chechens96.6%
  1,456,792
• Russians1.2%
  18,225
• Kumyks0.8%
  12,184
• Avars0.3%
  4,079
• Nogais0.2%
  2,819
• Tabasarans0.1%
  1,984
• Lezgins0.1%
  1,450
• Turks0.1%
  1,302
• Tatars0.1%
  1,237
• Azerbaijanis0.1%
  1,189
• Other declared ethnicities0.5%
  7,333

Census population: 1,510,824. Ethnicity stated: 1,508,594. Ethnicity not stated: 2,230. Person counts from the 2025 yearbook’s 2021 census column. Shares use the 1,508,594 residents who stated ethnicity. Other declared ethnicities (7,333) combine smaller named groups and other answers; 2,230 unstated records remain separate. Nested subgroups are not added twice.

No comparable regional percentage verified.

The 2012 ARENA survey did not cover Chechnya or Ingushetia. Sources below describe religious traditions and institutions; they do not measure residents’ affiliations.[24][26][28][30][29]

• Sunni and Sufi traditions

  Akaev’s historical study, republished in 2015 from a 2011 article and partly based on 2003 research, describes Sunni Shafi‘i and Sufi traditions alongside other Islamic currents in Chechnya. Only the publisher abstract was inspected; it establishes no current regional percentage.[28]

• Orthodox Christian communities

  A November 2025 church report documents Orthodox worship at the Archangel Michael cathedral in Grozny. The Grozny Diocese directory records institutional coverage in Chechnya from March 2025. These institutional records supply no population share.[30][29]

ARENA 2012 did not survey this republic. No defensible region-wide religious percentages are supplied here. The dated sources document communities and traditions; they are not a representative distribution, and the list is not exhaustive. Religion is not inferred from ethnicity.