Multitudes of tribes thrive in every corner of the Manipur state. Zou, amongst them, has got a place of prominence in the whole of Indian subcontinent. The Zou tribal community populace is rightly being centralized in districts, namely, Churachandpur and Chandel. As per the modifications of the Constitution of India, done in the year 1956, Zou tribes have been formally accepted as one of the 29 "Scheduled Tribes" within the state of Manipur.

According to the Indian census report, the Zou population has been ranked as being the 10th largest amongst the Scheduled Tribe population in Manipur state. Total population has been enumerated to be 20,567 persons.

However, there are other sources that have claimed that the number can go up to twenty five to thirty thousand over the years. It is really interesting to find out the fact that the Zou language has become one of the major Indian languages of India. It has achieved the status of being incorporated in the study curriculum of the high schools and also some of the higher secondary schools of the state of Manipur.

All the write ups of the Zou tribes are being done using the script that these Zou tribes have formulated. It is called "Zolai". Today, this Zolai script has gained popularity amongst Zou youths who have started to learn the script with lots of enthusiasm and excitement. However, Roman script is the official script that has been used by the Zou population. Even the holy book Bible has been translated in to Zou language making use of Roman script.

In Manipur, the literacy rate of the Zou tribes is low which according to the Census report of India has been counted to be 61.6%. This census report has been brought out in the year 2001. It is to be noted that the Zou dialectal group is just a branch of the huge traditional group, namely, Chin-Kuki-Lushai ethnic group. Since these Zou tribes live in close association with several other tribes of northeast India , especially Manipur , nicely cultural and ethnic elements like dialects , etc. Thses Zou tribes , following the trend of the other tribes , too followed Christianity as their main religion . This Zou community has a plethora of rituals and customs, both religious as well as social, undergo sea change to keep up with the trend of present day modern trends.