Barbil is a town as well as a municipality in the Keonjhar district of the state of Orissa in India. The administrative headquarters of the Kendujhar district is in the city of Kendujhar. The district of Keonjhar is located between 21°1` North and 22°10` North latitude and 85° 11` E to 86° 22` E longitude. It covers an area of 8,240 square km. Keonjhar district has a varied topography with waterfalls of different sizes and roaring gorges with rolling boulders extending onwards to the plains of Anandapur. One distinctive feature of the district of Keonjhar is that it has one of the oldest rocks of the world, approximately 38,000 millions year old spreading over an area of 100 square km at Asanpat. It also has the oldest stone writing found in Orissa presumably belonging to the Gupta period. In Sitabinj, there is the wall paintings in the cave shelter of Ravana Chhaya which were most probably made during the 5th century A.D. The district is home to two main tribes. These are the Juangs and the Bhuyans. The district of Keonjhar has a plethora of mineral resources. There are huge deposits of iron, manganese and chrome ores. About 30% of the entire area of the district is filled with dense forests.

Barbil has a multi-ethnic culture due to the arrival of people from almost all states of India. The town has very good convent school known by the name of `St. Mary`s School`. As per the 2001 India census, Barbil has a total population of 52,586. Now in the year 2006 the population amounts to a total of over 1.2 lakhs. Males amount to 53% of the population and females make up 47%. Barbil has a mean literacy rate of 64%, higher than the nationwide average of 59.5%. 69% of the males and 59% of females are literate. 16% of the population is children below six years of age. The city of Barbil has twenty-four primary schools and seven high schools. There is also the Barbil college and mining school for offering higher education. Barbil is an industrially developed town with a great many plants, crushers and mines around. The area near Barbil has the fifth biggest deposit of iron ore and manganese ore in the whole world. It is a major revenue earner for both the central and the state government. From here, iron ore is also exported to China. Moreover, steel and liquid oxygen are also produced here. The Kalinga Iron Works, located in this town, manufactures pig iron and spun pipes.