Dolgany live in the Taymyrskiy Autonomous Okrug and in the northwestern part of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), numbering 7330 people. Traditionally nomadic hunters and reindeer herders, today they live on the tundra of the Taymyr Peninsula, along the rivers Kheta and Khatanga and south of them, within the Taymyrskiy (Dolgano-Nenetskiy) Autonomous Okrug.

Many still live semi nomadically and practice small-scale reindeer husbandry influenced by other adjacent peoples – for example in the use of dogs, unlike other Turkic peoples that practice reindeer husbandry. Winter pastures are in the tundra areas, while the summer pastures are situated in the forest tundra of the main river basins. Migration routes are considerably shorter than those of the Nenets and Komi and are little changed since the advent of collectivisation.

The main Dolgan area of reindeer husbandry is in the Khatanga district where the collective farms have several thousand animals. Wild reindeer has been a challenge for Dolgan reindeer husbandry.