The district is bisected by the River Arun, and is divided between a broad rural area in the north of the district that contains Arundel and a host of small villages, part of which sits within the South Downs National Park, and an urban coastal strip that includes Bognor Regis and Littlehampton.

The district is also entirely divided into civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.

Following the 2023 election the Conservatives were the largest party, but a coalition of the Liberal Democrats, Labour, Greens and some of the independents took control of the council, appointing a Liberal Democrat leader and Labour deputy leader of the council, to replace the previous Conservative minority administration.

[21] It also maintains an area office at the Town Hall on Clarence Road in Bognor Regis.

[25] The following 31 civil parishes are located within the district:[26] Although set within the typically prosperous county of West Sussex, much of Bognor Regis and Littlehampton are ranked amongst the 20% most deprived areas in the UK as a whole on the Index of Multiple Deprivation.

In 2008, the district council won an Ashden Award for their work on energy efficiency.