Stepanakert demographics · Atlas

Density 1.0× span

Demographics over time · Stepanakert · share of population + headcount

Armenian
Azerbaijani

All observations · 15 rows

Year	Group	Share	Population	Source	Notes
1897	Armenian	100%	3,300	First General Census of the Russian Empire, 1897	Then Khankendi, an Armenian-majority small town that would become the NKAO administrative seat in 1923 and rename Stepanakert.
1923	Armenian	90%	3,000	Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War	Then Khankendi, made the capital of the new NKAO. Renamed Stepanakert in 1923 after Bolshevik leader [[figure:shahumyan\|Stepan Shahumyan]].
1926	Armenian	—	3,000	All-Union Soviet Census of 1926
1939	Armenian	96%	10,500	All-Union Population Census of 1939
1959	Armenian	95%	17,000	All-Union Population Census of 1959
1970	Armenian	90%	30,000	All-Union Population Census of 1970
1979	Azerbaijani	12%	—	All-Union Soviet Census of 1979
1979	Armenian	87%	38,600	All-Union Soviet Census of 1979	Mid-Soviet expansion of the NKAO capital.
1989	Armenian	89%	55,000	All-Union Soviet Census of 1989	Late-Soviet peak; small Azerbaijani minority departed during 1988-92.
1989	Azerbaijani	9%	—	All-Union Soviet Census of 1989
1994	Armenian	100%	50,000	Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War	After the 1988-92 Azerbaijani population fled and the war losses, Stepanakert's population dropped from 55,000 to roughly 50,000 and was wholly Armenian.
2009	Armenian	100%	53,000	Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War	NKR / Artsakh census figure.
2015	Armenian	—	55,200	Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War	NKR census figure. The capital remained almost wholly Armenian throughout the de facto period.
2020	Armenian	100%	55,000	Black Garden: Armenia and Azerbaijan Through Peace and War	Pre-Second-Karabakh-War peak population.
2024	Armenian	—	0	UNHCR registration data, displacement from Nagorno-Karabakh	After the September 2023 evacuation, Stepanakert was emptied of its Armenian population. Reoccupied as Khankendi by Azerbaijani authorities; Aliyev relocated the Karabakh administrative seat there 2024.