The Munda are found mainly concentrated in the south and East Chhotanagpur Plateau region of Jharkhand,[8] Odisha and West Bengal.

[1][9] The Munda also reside in adjacent areas of Madhya Pradesh as well as in portions of Bangladesh, Nepal, and the Indian state of Tripura.

According to linguist Paul Sidwell, Munda languages arrived on the coast of Odisha from Southeast Asia approximately 4,000 to 3,500 years ago (c. 2000 – c. 1500 BCE).

[17][18] The Munda people initially spread from Southeast Asia, but mixed extensively with local Indian populations.

[20] According to historian R. S. Sharma, tribals who spoke the Munda language occupied the eastern region of ancient India.

Their presence in texts compiled in the upper Gangetic basin late in that period suggests that Munda speakers were there at the time.

[23] In the late 1800s, during the British Raj, the Mundas were forced to pay rents and work as bonded labourers to the zamindars.

With the listing of the Munda people as Scheduled Tribes, many are employed in various governmental organisations (particularly Indian Railways).

The priest "Deori" is also prevalent among Hos, Bhumij, Bhuyan, Sounti, Khonds tribe of Odisha and Chutia people of Assam.

[37] According to Sarat Chandra Roy, Sindurdaan ceremony and turmeric use in marriage clearly reflect Hindu elements borrowed into Munda tradition.

[38] Munda people of Jharkhand also follow the age old tradition of Patthalgari, i.e., stone erection, in which the tribal community residing in the village buries a large inverted U-shaped dressed headstone on the head side of a grave or at the entrance to the village, in which is inscribed the family tree of the dead persons.

[42] In a 2016 research paper on subsistence strategies of Mundas in a village of Sunderbans in West Bengal, it was found that many people migrate out of their residences because of poor economic conditions and landlessness.

Men and women engage in forest product collection, cultivation, small business and agricultural as well as non-agricultural jobs.

A person or a family may be engaged in multiple occupations, often undertaking risky visits to the forests and rivers.

It was also found that younger generation preferred to engage as migrant workers outside the village and often outside the district and the state.