The Ateker-speaking communities include the Nyangatomo of Ethiopia; the Toposa, Bari, and Torit of South Sudan; the Iteso, Turkana, and Masai of Kenya; the Iteso, Karimojong, Jie, Dodoth, Kumam, Langi, and Kakwa of Uganda; and the Masai of Tanzania, plus other closely-knit groups spread across the greater East African region.

UBOS has been under scrutiny by the public, citing significant errors in tribal population data from the 2024 census provisional report, and this has had many stops to trust the results. The Bureau admitted to having mistakenly interchanged figures for the Bagisu and Bakiga tribes, and the UBOS ED Mukiza described the discrepancies as human errors occurring during the final reporting stage.