In brief
The largest documented number lives in Russia: 323 people in the 2021 census.
In Russia's 2020 census (reference date 1 October 2021), 323 people identified with the nationality "Осетины-иронцы" (Iron Ossetians)1. That is less than 0.01% of the 130,587,364 residents who stated a nationality.
Rosstat counts this group within the "Ossetians" nationality.
Rosstat also assigns 4 other self-designations to this nationality (listed in Russian in the source table).
Main language: Iron Ossetian. Glottolog classifies it in the Indo-European family.
Where they live: census figures
Each figure comes from the country's official census. Censuses define belonging differently (self-identification, citizenship, mother tongue, ancestry); the type is given on each row.
In detail: Russia, 2021 census
Where: the 10 regions with the largest numbers
Source [1]: Rosstat, 2020 census, vol. 5, table 1
Languages and their lineage
Iron Ossetian
- Indo-Europeanindo1319
- Classical Indo-Europeanclas1257
- Indo-Iranianindo1320
- Iranian-Nuristaniiran1271
- Iranianiran1269
- Central Iranian PBScent2317
- Sogdic-Osseticsogd1247
- Osseticosse1245
- Modern Osseticosse1243
- Iron Ossetianiron1242
People-to-language links: Wikidata (properties P103 and P2936), checked against ISO 639-3 codes. Language classification: Glottolog 5.3.
Sources
- Rosstat. National composition of the population of the Russian Federation. Results of the 2020 All-Russian Population Census (reference date 1 October 2021), vol. 5, table 1. Tom5_tab1_VPN-2020.xlsx (archived copy)
- Hammarström H., Forkel R., Haspelmath M., Bank S. (2026). Glottolog 5.3. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. glottolog.org (CC BY 4.0)