The present study on academically backward children was taken up in urban and rural areas of Dharwad taluk,Karnataka state during 2015-16. The sample for the study comprised of 120 higher primary children in the age of 10-14years who were selected from eight schools from Dharwad city and two villages of Dharwad taluk. The emotional maturitylevel of children was assessed using emotional maturity scale developed by Singh and Bhargava (1990). Self structuredschedule was used to collect reasons for academic backwardness, and socio-economic status was assessed with the scaledeveloped by Agarwal et al. (2005). The results revealed that prevalence of academically backward children was 29.84 percent and it was slightly higher in rural area (30.60 %) compared to urban area (29.08 %). Further main reasons for academicbackwardness were related to personal problems followed by school and familial related problems. Majority of academicbackward children were found emotionally unstable and they were better in independence dimension compared to otherfour dimensions of emotional maturity.