in the 2011 census, hindi was the mother-tongue (languages mentioned under schedule 8 of the constitution of india) of 62.5% of the population in dhanbad district, followed by bengali (19.3%) and urdu (8.1%). the scheduled tribes constituted 8.4% of the total population of the district. amongst the scheduled tribes those speaking santali formed 77.2% of the st population. other tribes found in good numbers were: munda, mahli and kora.