Nenets

Nenets
Ненэй, ненэче
A Nenets family in the Brekhovskie Islands, 1913
Total population
c. 50,000
Regions with significant populations
Russia
  • Arkhangelsk Oblast:

    Nenets Autonomous Okrug: 6,713

  • Tyumen Oblast:
    Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug: 35,917
49,646[1]
Ukraine217[2]
Languages
Nenets, Russian
Religion
Shamanism, Animism, Russian Orthodoxy
Related ethnic groups
Enets, Nganasans, Selkups

The Nenets (Nenets: ненэй ненэче, romanized: nenəj nenəče; Russian: ненцы, romanizednentsy), also known as 'Samoyeds' or 'Yuraks' (deprecated terms), are a Samoyedic ethnic group native to Arctic Russia, Russian Far North. According to the latest census in 2021, there were 49,646 Nenets in the Russian Federation, most of them living in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug, Nenets Autonomous Okrug and Taymyrsky Dolgano-Nenetsky District stretching along the coastline of the Arctic Ocean near the Arctic Circle between Kola and Taymyr peninsulas. The Nenets people speak either the Tundra or Forest Nenets languages. In the Russian Federation they have a status of Indigenous small-numbered peoples.[3] Today, the Nenets people face numerous challenges from the state and oil and gas companies that threaten the environment and their way of life. As a result, many cite a rise in locally based activism.

  1. ^ "Национальный состав населения" [Patrial composition of the population]. Federal State Statistics Service. Retrieved 30 December 2022.
  2. ^ Державний комітет статистики України (Ukrainian) (tr. "State Statistics Committee of Ukraine", 2001.ukrcensus.gov.ua
  3. ^ Small(-numbered) peoples of the North and the Far East (МАЛЫЕ НАРОДЫ СЕВЕРА И ДАЛЬНЕГО ВОСТОКА). Multinational Petersburg. 18 July 2015