Uigar
Uyghur people
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For the language spoken by this ethnic group, see Uyghur language.
Uyghur
ئۇيغۇر
Total population
11.37 million[1] (35 million by unofficial sources)
Regions with significant populations
People's Republic of China (Xinjiang)
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Uzbekistan
Turkey
Russia
Tajikistan
Languages
Uyghur
Religion
Sunni Muslim
Sufi Muslim
Related ethnic groups
Hazara and other Turkic peoples
The Uyghur (also spelled Uygur, Uighur, Uigur, Uyghur: ئۇيغۇر; simplified Chinese: 维吾尔; traditional Chinese: 維吾爾; pinyin: W�iw�'ěr) are a Turkic-speaking people of Central Asia. Many English speakers pronounce it as "wEEger" (IPA: [ˈwi.ɡɚ]) but the pronunciation "ooygOOr" (IPA: [uj.ˈɡur]) is closer to native [ʔʊɪ'ʁʊː]. Today Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (also known by its controversial name Uyghurstan or East Turkistan) in the People's Republic of China.
There are Uyghur diasporic communities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Australia,[2] Germany and Turkey and smaller ones in Afghanistan, Russia and Taoyuan County of Hunan province in south-central Mainland China.[3] Uyghur neighborhoods can be found in major Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai.[4] There are small communities in the United States, mainly in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City and Washington, DC, as well as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.