Araria is a city and a municipality that is the headquarters of Araria district in the Indian state of Bihar. Araria is situated in the northern part of Bihar.

During the British Raj the area was under the administration of a British district collector and municipal commissioner, Alexander John Forbes (1807-1890) of East India Company. Forbes had a bungalow at the same location. Consequently, the area was known as 'residential area' also abbreviated as 'R-area'. Over time the name transformed to 'Araria' and the neighbouring subdivision came to be known as 'Forbesganj'.

Araria is a part of the Mithila region. Mithila first gained prominence after being settled by Indo-Aryan peoples who established the Mithila Kingdom (also called Kingdom of the Videhas).

During the late Vedic period (c. 1100–500 BCE), Kingdom of the Videhas became one of the major political and cultural centers of South Asia, along with Kuru and Pañcāla. The kings of the Kingdom of the Videhas were called Jankas. The Mithila Kingdom was later incorporated into the Vajjika League, which had its capital in the city of Vaishali, which is also in Mithila.

Araria is primarily a rural district; 93% of the total population lives in rural areas (713 villages). Only two out of nine tehsils have an urban population that is concentrated in Forbesganj and Araria(Census 2001).

In 2008 survey findings, Araria lagged behind the all India average in seven out of eight indicators and also lagged behind the all India level in terms of two more health-related indicators. Most of the villages lack some basic infrastructure: 92 percent are without any medical facilities; 20 percent of the villages lack formal facilities of education of any type; 597 out of 713 villages are without electricity; and 50 percent of the villages are without all-weather road connectivity. The overall work participation rate is 40.3 percent, which is much less in the case of the female population. Agriculture laborers dominate the labor force (64.7% of the total) which is almost double the national average.

There is a substantial concentration of minority (mainly Muslims) population. Against the state average of 20.52%, Muslims constitute 49.4 percent of the total rural populations, but their percentages are 77.5% in Jokihat, 62.70% in Araria, and 46.8% in Palasi subdivisions. The number of minority groups - Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Jains - are less in comparison. The rural literacy rate is 33.2 percent, much below the state and national averages. The worst is the female literacy rate, i.e. 20.4%. In other words, only one out of five women are literate. Even sex ratio, i.e., 917 is less than state and all India level.

Kulhayya people majorly live in this region.^{[citation needed]}