The Azerbaijani of Uzbekistan

The Azerbaijani of Uzbekistan, numbering approximately 82,500 people, are Unengaged and Unreached. They are an Azerbaijani-speaking Turkic diaspora community whose identity is rooted in shared language, cultural heritage, and historical connections to Azerbaijan. They mostly adhere to Shia Islam and North Azerbaijani is their primary language.

Photo by Google. (2026). Image generated by Gemini 3.1 Flash: Azerbaijani

Fast Facts:

Affinity Group: Turkic Peoples
Country: Uzbekistan
People Cluster: Azerbaijani
Primary Language(s): North Azerbaijani (azj)
Primary Religion(s): Shia Islam
Population: 82,500
Strategic Progress Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity
People Group ID: PG024657
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Pray for the Azerbaijani of Uzbekistan

Join others around the world in praying for the lost to be saved, the gospel to advance, the global Church to grow, and for laborers to be sent out and sustained in the harvest.

Dig Deeper (Religion):

Primary Religion: Shia Islam
Religious Affiliation: Islam

70%
%
Shia Islam Adherents

Dig Deeper (Language):

Primary Language: North Azerbaijani
Language Family: Turkic

100%
%
Azerbaijani, North Speakers

Media Resources in North Azerbaijani:

Films:
TitleLink
JESUSView Film
MagdalenaView Film

2 films

Bible Resources in North Azerbaijani:

Bible Name (Translation)VideoAudioText
Kitab Shirketi/Müqəddəs Kitab✓✓✓
Kitab Shirketi/Müqəddəs Kitab✓✓✓

2 entries

Or check out the North Azerbaijani bible at Bible.com

Linked from YouVersion

Explore Lostness and Next Steps

Unengaged and Unreached

Strategic Priority Index (SPI): Unengaged and Unreached (SPI: 0), which means there are less than 2% evangelical Christian populations among which there are no known efforts focused on establishing self-sustaining churches consistent with evangelical faith and practice.
Lostness Priority Index (LPI): Frontier Unreached People Group, (LPI: 0), < 0.1% Evangelical.
Global Status of Evangelical Christianity (GSEC): Less than 2% Evangelical, No Recent CP Activity (GSEC: 1), this people group is less than 2% evangelical, some evangelical resources are available, but there has been no active church planting among them within the past two years

Next steps for the Azerbaijani:
Begin signifcant prayer and fasting for this group
Send cross-cultural teams to discover and research this people group
Begin gospel seed sowing and church planting among this group

Pray specifically for the Azerbaijani of Uzbekistan

For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with a psalm!
readPsalm 47:7

Pray for those who live for idols that will never satisfy their hearts, asking that someone will tell them that God is the King of all the earth so that they will turn to Him in repentance and praise.

All the earth worships you and sings praises to you; they sing praises to your name.
readPsalm 66:4

Pray that the good news of Jesus will advance here and that many will bow down and sing praises to His name.

And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.
readActs 2:46-47

Pray that as people place their faith in Christ, they will be devoted to the teaching of God's Word, to fellowship with one another, and to prayer.

Come, bless the LORD, all you servants of the LORD, who stand by night in the house of the LORD!
readPsalm 134:1

Pray that God will raise up believers among them who are in awe of Him and that, in service to Him, they will share the gospel with others so that they too may bless the Lord!

Azerbaijani, Northern Across Countries (ROP3 - 100675) reported in the following countries:

Strategic Progress Index
All

9 people groups

PhotoPeople Group IDNameCountryPopulation ▼Strategic Progress IndexLanguageReligion
AzerbaijaniAzerbaijaniAzerbaijan9,615,000Engaged yet UnreachedNorth AzerbaijaniShia Islam
AzerbaijaniAzerbaijaniGeorgia259,000Engaged yet UnreachedNorth AzerbaijaniShia Islam
AzerbaijaniAzerbaijaniKazakhstan95,000Unengaged and UnreachedNorth AzerbaijaniShia Islam
AzerbaijaniAzerbaijaniUzbekistan82,500Unengaged and UnreachedNorth AzerbaijaniShia Islam
AzerbaijaniAzerbaijaniTurkmenistan62,000Unengaged and UnreachedNorth AzerbaijaniShia Islam
AzerbaijaniAzerbaijaniUnited States26,000Engaged yet UnreachedNorth AzerbaijaniShia Islam
AzerbaijaniAzerbaijaniKyrgyzstan17,500Unengaged and UnreachedNorth AzerbaijaniShia Islam
AzerbaijaniAzerbaijaniGermany15,000Engaged yet UnreachedNorth AzerbaijaniSunni Islam
AzerbaijaniAzerbaijaniNetherlands7,500Unengaged and UnreachedNorth AzerbaijaniShia Islam

To download a comprehensive people group list in spreadsheet form, visit our Research Data page.

Peoplegroups.org relies on updates from the field and other organizations for much of our data, so if you have any updates, please contact us. We use various international naming standards. For a list of these standards and fields, visit our Data Standards section.

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