Ossetians
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (c. 650,000) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Russia
|
528,515 |
(in  North Ossetia) |
445,310 |
 South Ossetia: |
45,000 |
 Georgia(excluding South Ossetia) |
14,426 |
 Turkey
|
20,000–100,000 |
 Ukraine
|
4,830 |
 Latvia
|
256 |
 Estonia
|
116 |
| Languages | |
| Ossetian, Russian, Georgian | |
| Religion | |
| Predominantly † Orthodox Christianity with a minority professing Ossetian Traditional Religion and Sunni Islam |
|
| Related ethnic groups | |
|
Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans Other Iranian peoples, the Jassic people of Hungary, neighbouring peoples of the Caucasus. |
|
|
a. ^ The total figure is merely an estimation; sum of all the referenced populations. |
|
The Ossetians or Ossetes (Ossetian: ир, ирæттæ, ir, irættæ; дигорæ, дигорæнттæ, digoræ, digorænttæ) are an Iranian ethnic group of the Caucasus Mountains, indigenous to the region known as Ossetia in Eastern Europe. They speak Ossetic, an Eastern Iranian (Alanic) language of the Indo-European languages family, with most also fluent in Russian as a second language. The Ossetian language is neither closely related to nor mutually intelligible with any other language of the family today. Ossetic, a remnant of the Scytho-Sarmatian dialect group which was once spoken across the Steppe, is the only Iranian language native to Europe.
The Ossetians are mostly Eastern Orthodox Christian, with a minority Muslim or Ossetian Traditional beliefs.
The Ossetians mostly populate Ossetia, which is politically divided between North Ossetia–Alania in Russia, and South Ossetia, which since the 2008 South Ossetia war has been de facto independent from Georgia.
Their closest relatives, the Jász, live in the Jászság region within the north-western part of the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County in Hungary.
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Wikipedia