The district is located in the Northeast of Gujarat and is presumably named after the West Banas River which runs through the valley between Mount Abu and Aravalli Range, flowing to the plains of Gujarat in this region and towards the Rann of Kutch.

The district ranks first in the Country in milk production, the Asia's Largest Dairy Cooperative under the Brandname of AMUL is Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Ltd., Palanpur known as Banas Dairy procuring almost 59,58,134 Lit.

Bajri, Maize, Tobacco, Castor oil, Jowar, Psyllium are the other major crops of the district.

The district has rich mineral reserves including limestone, marble, granite, building stone, and china clay.

It accounts for almost the entire marble reserves (99.3%) of Gujarat and contributes about 15% to the total production of limestone in the state.

In 2006 the Ministry of Panchayati Raj named Banaskantha one of the country's 250 most backward districts (out of a total of 640).

[6] According to the 2011 census Banaskantha district has a population of 3,120,506,[1] roughly equal to the nation of Mongolia[8] or the US state of Iowa.