There are about 13,500 Inupiat (the plural form, referring to the people collectively) in Alaska, of whom about 3,000, mostly over age 40, speak the language.

Inupiaq is the collective term for the dialects of Eastern Eskimo spoken in Alaska and immediately adjacent parts of Northern Canada. There are two major dialect groups, Seward Peninsula Inupiaq (Qawiaraq) and North Alaskan Inupiaq. Seward Peninsula Inupiaq includes the local dialects of the southern Seward Peninsula and Norton Sound area, and of the villages surrounding Bering Strait and on King and Diomede Islands. North Alaskan Inupiaq includes the Malimiut dialect around Kotzebue Sound and the North Slope dialect spoken along the Arctic Coast as far east as the Mackenzie Delta. The Seward Peninsula and North Alaskan dialect groups differ significantly from each other and a fair amount of experience is required for a speaker of one to understand a speaker of the other.