The 2002 census puts the overall number of this ethnic group at 2.650 persons, while the 2010 census recorded 2.643 representatives of this group. Over 95% of Teleuts live in the Kemerovo region, mostly in the village and cities of the Belovsky, Gurievsk, and Novokuznetsk districts. Small groups of Teleuts some of whom still retain their ethnic identity live in the Zarinsk and Kytmanovo districts of the Altai territory, as well as the Altai Republic.
The Kemerovo region and the Kuznetsk Basin are located in the southeast of Western Siberia. The area stretches for nearly 500 kilometers north-south, and for 300 kilometers east-west. It has an area of 95.700 square kilometers, which accounts for 0.6% of the entire land area of the Russian Federation.
Scholars have mostly looked into shamanism as the widespread type of religious worship among Teleuts. Even though it manifests significant similarities with shamanism practiced by other peoples of the Sayan-Altai area, it also had some unique features.