Giridih is headquarters of the Giridih district of Jharkhand state, India. The literal meaning of Giridih is the land of hills & hillocks - Giri, a Hindi word, means Hills and Dih, another word of the local dialect, indicates upland. Giridih district was earlier a part of Hazaribagh district. As of 2001 India census, the district had a population of 98,569. Males constitute 53% of the population and females 47%.The average literacy rate of the district is 69%, higher than the national average of 59.5 %. Male literacy is 74%, and female literacy is 63%. Fifteen percent of the population is under 6 years of age.

Giridih town used to bustle with economic activity in the period from 60s and 80s when the mineral mica processing and export community reaped tremendous gains through exports. Since the formation of new state, the government has initiated lot of small scale Industries within the state. They all are basically related with metals and majority of them are Rolling Mills.
Personalities like Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose spent his last days in Giridih and later died in Giridih. The great literary figure and the Noble Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore had also spent some time in Giridih. The district has several interesting spots, including Usri Falls, Khandoli-famous picnic spot and Parasnath Hills with highest mountain peak in Jharkhand, 4480 feet above the sea level.

After independence, central as well as state governments have taken up special programmes for the rehabilitation of primitive tribes having wandering economy in the form of food collection, hunting and shifting cultivation. Birhor is one of the primitive tribe groups living in the districts of Hazaribag, Giridih, Ranchi, Lohardaga, Palamu, Garhwa, Dhanbad, and Singhbhum in Jharkhand State.