There were 496,500 in 1989, forming 30% of the population, and 70% were Udmurt speakers. The rest live mainly in the Perm Province, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, in the provinces of Kirov and Yekaterinburg of the Russian Federation, and in the Mari Republic. In all, 714,800 Udmurts in the whole of Russia in 1998.

The name for the Udmurts propagated by the use in the Russian language and now outdated is Votyak, which the Udmurts consider disparaging and offensive. Udmurt is an Uralic language, and its self-designation is Udmurt Kyl.