Based on the 2020 All-Russian Population Census, the total number of Saami in the Russian Federation is 1550 people, including 690 men and 860 women. Of this total, 1370 people (632 men and 738 women) live on their traditional territory (Murmansk Oblast), based on the data of October 1, 2021.
In 2022, the Institute of Linguistics RAS attributed Skolt Saami the vitality status of 1B(R) . Such status is granted to the so-called dormant languages, where there are no more regular communication, no intergenerational transmission, and the number of speakers varies between 1 and 40 people. The additional R in the classification is used to characterize the state of Skolt Saami only within Russia. The language can be considered extinct due to extensive areas of settlement and the fact that the region is divided between different countries .
In Russia, it does not have any official status, and it is only taught in primary schools in the locations inhabited by ethnic groups. At present, there are only a few speakers of the Notozero dialect of Skolt Saami left (in the Russian Federation, Skolt Saami is represented only by the Notozero dialect), and they are all elderly people. The language is not transmitted within families, and there was never any system of writing for this dialect . According to the encyclopedia Язык и общество [Language and Society] (2016), Saami languages as a whole are not used in education, with the exception of optional courses of Kildin Saami and (occasionally) Skolt Saami.