Shusha demographics
Every documented census and post-Soviet observation, on a single shared timeline. Hover any chart point or population bar for the source-by-source breakdown.
Density 1.0× span
- Armenian
- Azerbaijani
All observations · 32 rows
| Year | Group | Share | Population | Source | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1823 | Armenian | 79% | 1,620 | Kameralnoe opisanie Karabakhskoi provintsii, 1823 (Survey of the Karabakh province) | Russian Imperial 1823 survey of the Karabakh khanate. Total Shusha households recorded at approximately 421 Armenian + 113 Muslim, with roughly 4 persons per household; the Armenian / Muslim ratio is the survey-recorded ~79% / 21% split. |
| 1823 | Azerbaijani | 21% | 430 | Kameralnoe opisanie Karabakhskoi provintsii, 1823 (Survey of the Karabakh province) | 1823 Russian Imperial survey: the Muslim quarter (recorded as "Tatar" in the period's administrative vocabulary) was a significant minority within Shusha city, even though the surrounding Karabakh khanate population was largely Muslim. The city itself was Armenian-majority. |
| 1886 | Azerbaijani | 44% | 11,000 | Caucasus Calendar (Каменский Календарь / Кавказский календарь), 1846-1917 | |
| 1886 | Armenian | 56% | 14,000 | Caucasus Calendar (Каменский Календарь / Кавказский календарь), 1846-1917 | Shusha 1886 Caucasian Calendar; Armenian and Azeri quarters of similar size, with Armenians slightly the larger. |
| 1897 | Azerbaijani | 43% | 11,100 | First General Census of the Russian Empire, 1897 | |
| 1897 | Armenian | 56% | 14,400 | First General Census of the Russian Empire, 1897 | 1897 First General Census of the Russian Empire. Total Shusha population recorded at approximately 25,800; Armenian and Muslim/Azerbaijani quarters of similar size with Armenians the slight majority. |
| 1921 | Armenian | 0% | 0 | Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War | After the March 1920 destruction of the Armenian quarter (~half of pre-1920 Shusha was burned), the Armenian population fell to effectively zero. Shusha did not recover its pre-war size for 70 years. |
| 1921 | Azerbaijani | 100% | 4,000 | Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War | Post-destruction Shusha was effectively all Azerbaijani. The Muslim quarter was largely intact; the Armenian quarter was ash. By 1921 the city held roughly 4,000 Azerbaijani residents, rebuilding to approximately 4,690 by the 1926 census. |
| 1926 | Azerbaijani | 92% | 4,690 | All-Union Soviet Census of 1926 | Shusha became overwhelmingly Azerbaijani after 1920; the 1926 figure of ~4,700 represents the surviving Muslim quarter and post-1920 in-migration. |
| 1926 | Armenian | 7% | 350 | All-Union Soviet Census of 1926 | After the 1920 destruction the Armenian quarter was effectively gone; the small Armenian return through 1921–25 produced only a few hundred residents. The 1926 census recorded Shusha at roughly 5,100 inhabitants total. |
| 1939 | Armenian | 12% | 700 | All-Union Population Census of 1939 | After the 1920 destruction of the Armenian quarter, Shusha was overwhelmingly Azerbaijani for the rest of the Soviet period. Total Shusha population in 1939 was approximately 5,700. |
| 1939 | Azerbaijani | 87% | 5,000 | All-Union Population Census of 1939 | |
| 1959 | Armenian | 9% | 600 | All-Union Population Census of 1959 | A modest Armenian community returned to Shusha during the post-Stalin Soviet period; total Shusha population by 1959 was roughly 6,000–6,500. |
| 1959 | Azerbaijani | 89% | 5,800 | All-Union Population Census of 1959 | |
| 1970 | Armenian | 9% | 700 | All-Union Population Census of 1970 | The 1970 All-Union census recorded a total Shusha population of roughly 7,500–8,000, with the same proportional split as 1959. |
| 1970 | Azerbaijani | 89% | 7,000 | All-Union Population Census of 1970 | |
| 1979 | Azerbaijani | 92% | 13,700 | All-Union Soviet Census of 1979 | |
| 1979 | Armenian | 5% | 750 | All-Union Soviet Census of 1979 | 1979 All-Union census recorded a Shusha total of approximately 14,800 inhabitants. |
| 1989 | Azerbaijani | 91% | 15,039 | All-Union Soviet Census of 1989 | |
| 1989 | Armenian | 8% | 1,341 | All-Union Soviet Census of 1989 | Late-Soviet figure: small Armenian minority (1,341 of ~17,000) restored after partial reconstruction in the 1970s. |
| 1994 | Azerbaijani | 0% | 0 | Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War | After the May 1992 Armenian capture of Shusha, the Azerbaijani population (~16,000) fled. The town stayed largely empty for several years; the Azerbaijani share fell to zero from the 1989 majority of 91%. |
| 1994 | Armenian | 100% | 600 | Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War | Of the few hundred residents in 1994, all were Armenian — the city had flipped from majority Azerbaijani to entirely Armenian after the May 1992 capture. |
| 2009 | Armenian | 100% | 3,300 | Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War | NKR / Artsakh re-settlement of Shusha through the 1990s and 2000s. The 2009 figure of approximately 3,300 reflects 15 years of Armenian-only repopulation under de-facto NKR administration. |
| 2009 | Azerbaijani | 0% | 0 | Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War | During the NKR / Artsakh period (1992–2020), no Azerbaijani residents lived in Shusha; the post-1992 Azerbaijani displacement was complete and re-entry was not permitted under NKR administration. |
| 2015 | Armenian | 100% | 4,000 | Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War | |
| 2015 | Azerbaijani | 0% | 0 | Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War | |
| 2020 | Armenian | 0% | 0 | Armenia and Azerbaijan: Anatomy of a Rivalry | After the November 2020 Azerbaijani capture, the entire Armenian population (~4,500–5,000) fled. Aliyev visited the empty town within weeks and declared it Azerbaijan's "spiritual capital". Same demographic flip as 1992 in reverse — total displacement in days. |
| 2020 | Azerbaijani | 0% | 0 | Armenia and Azerbaijan: Anatomy of a Rivalry | Azerbaijani population at zero immediately after the recapture; the post-2020 "Great Return" programme would re-settle the town through 2021–24. |
| 2023 | Azerbaijani | 100% | 2,000 | Caucasus Heritage Watch monitoring reports, post-2023 Karabakh | Azerbaijani resettlement in progress: by late 2023 the "Great Return" programme had moved approximately 2,000 Azerbaijani residents into Shusha, with full population targets in the 6,000–10,000 range. All inhabitants were Azerbaijani. |
| 2023 | Armenian | 0% | 0 | UNHCR registration data, displacement from Nagorno-Karabakh | After the September 2023 Azerbaijani offensive, the remaining Armenian population of Karabakh (~100,000) fled to Armenia within a week. Shusha had already been emptied of Armenians in 2020; by late 2023 no Armenian community remained in any part of the former NKAO. |
| 2024 | Azerbaijani | 100% | 6,000 | AzStat and government reports on resettlement of Karabakh and surrounding districts, 2021-2024 | Azerbaijani re-settlement under the post-2020 "Great Return" programme. By 2024 Shusha was 100% Azerbaijani, with the city re-imagined as Azerbaijan's "cultural capital" and hosting the 2023 Vagif Poetry Days as a state-sponsored event. |
| 2024 | Armenian | 0% | 0 | AzStat and government reports on resettlement of Karabakh and surrounding districts, 2021-2024 |