Barkakana is a census town situated in the Hazaribag district in the state of Jharkhand in India.. Hazaribagh is made up of two Hindi words, hazar, which denotes "one thousand", and bagh which denotes "garden" - so, the literal meaning of Hazaribagh is "a city of one thousand gardens". The district is famous for its coal fields.

As per the 2001 India census, Barkakana has a population of 16,872. Males make up 54% of the population and females amount to 46%. The town of Barkakana has a mean literacy rate of 68%, higher than the nationwide standard of 59.5%. 60% of the males and 40% of the females are literate. 13% of the population is children below six years of age.