It is 19,540 km2 and is bordered by the Mahafaly people to the northwest (Atsimo-Andrefana), the Antanosy to the east (Anosy) and the Bara land to the north (starting at about Isoanala).

The population is almost entirely Tandroy ("people of the thorny bush") or Karembola (in the southwest), with small numbers of Antanosy, Mahafaly, Merina and Betsileo who also live there.

There are another estimated 150,000 Tandroy living in other parts of the island, many of them having moved due to recurring famine in the Androy region.

The periodic famines have caused somewhere between 15 and 30% of the Antandroy to have left Androy, having moved west to Toliary or to northern Madagascar.

Most people are subsistence farmers (it is estimated that less than 5% of the land is farmed) growing cassava, maize, sweet potatoes, legumes, cowpeas, groundnuts, lentils, millet, sorghum and mangos (rice is not possible due to arid climate).

Cash crops include sisal (grown only in the lower Mandrare river region) and groundnuts (cotton production has declined).

Some argue the Tandroy are a "composite ethnicity" of many clans of diverse origins (including the Sakalava, Bara, Mahafaly and Antanosy) who arrived in migration "waves," settling in Androy only several centuries ago.