It was created on 25 February 2003 from what were previously the eastern districts of North Hulu Sungai Regency.

the regency's motto is "Sanggam" (Banjarese), also an acronym for "Sanggup Bagawi Gasan Masyarakat" (Banjarese="Willing To Work for the Sake of the People").

Balangan Regency consists of eight districts (kecamatan), tabulated below with their areas and population totals from the 2010 Census,[2] and 2020 Census,[3] together with the official estimates for mid-2023.

[1] The table also includes the location of the district administrative centres, the number of administrative villages in each district (a total of 154 rural desa and 3 urban kelurahan), and its postal codes.

Paringin, the seat of the regency has a tropical rainforest climate (Af) with heavy rainfall year-round.