The district was formed by merging the princely states of Raigarh, Sakti, Sarangarh, Udaipur and Jashpur.

The volume can be judged by the statement that Raigarh itself is consuming about 20,000 tons of coal per day.

[4] The district has a population density of 211 inhabitants per square kilometre (550/sq mi).

[4] Raigarh has a sex ratio of 993 females for every 1000 males, and a literacy rate of 73.7%.

[4] At the time of the 2011 Census of India, 72.34% of the population in the district spoke Chhattisgarhi, 8.63% Odia, 8.32% Hindi, 5.29% Kurukh, 1.07% Bengali and 1.04% Bhojpuri as their first language.