 Purba Medinipur had the highest literacy amongst all the districts of West Bengal in 2011.See also – List of West Bengal districts ranked by literacy rate

As per the 2001 census, Bengali was the mother-tongue of 90.5%of the population of Purba Medinipur district, followed by Santali (4.6%), Hindi (1.4%), Kurmali Thar (0.7%), Urdu (0.6%), Telugu (0.6%), Odiya (0.4%), Mundari (0.2%), Koda/ Kora (0.1%), Munda (0.1%), Nepali (0.1%) and others (0.3%).Census information about language is available at the district level or above only.