Kharia belongs to the Kharia–Juang branch of the Munda language family. Its closest extant relative is the Juang language, but the relationship between Kharia and Juang is remote.
The most widely cited classification places Kharia and Juang together as a subgroup of the South Munda branch of the Munda family. However, some earlier classification schemes placed Kharia and Juang together, as an independent branch deriving from the root of the Munda languages, which they named Central Munda.
Peterson, John (2008). "Kharia". In Anderson, Gregory D. S' (ed.). The Munda languages. Routledge Language Family Series. Vol. 3. New York: Routledge. pp. 434–507. ISBN0-415-32890-X.