Located in the south-eastern part of the region, along the Woluwe valley and at the entrance to the Sonian Forest, it is bordered by Etterbeek, Ixelles, Watermael-Boitsfort, and Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, as well as the Flemish municipalities of Tervuren and Overijse.

Despite large roads slicing through and the increasing traffic, the municipality has an environmental advantage, and it has been able to preserve a relatively important part of its natural and historic legacy: the creeks, Rouge Cloître Abbey and its art centre, the Priory of Val-Duchesse, the Château of Three Fountains, the Château Saint-Anne, and St. Anne's Chapel.

In 1811, Napoleon decided to reunite the three villages, by imperial decree, into a single administrative entity.

In 1956, Paul Henri Spaak lead the Intergovernmental Conference on the Common Market and Euratom at the Château of Val-Duchesse in Auderghem, which prepared the Treaties of Rome in 1957 and the foundation of the European Economic Community and Euratom in 1958.

As of 2004[update], the majority of Brussels' Japanese expatriate population lives in Auderghem.