Governed as a prefecture-level city, as of the 2020 census, its built-up (or metro) area made up of its 5 urban districts is home to 2,261,089 people with a total population of 2,709,378 accounting for counties under its jurisdiction.

Near the end of the Han dynasty (206 BC–220 AD), Lü Bu, a particularly noteworthy warrior, was born in today's Jiuyuan District of Baotou.

Compared to the capital of Inner Mongolia, Hohhot, Baotou's construction as a city came relatively late, being incorporated as a town in 1809.

The city's site was chosen because it was in an arable region of the Yellow River's Great Bend.

When young Owen Lattimore visited Baotou in 1925, it was still "a little husk of a town in a great hollow shell of mud ramparts, where two busy streets made a traders' quarter", but already an important railhead.

[citation needed] In the early Communist years, Baotou served as an industrial centre, with a significant portion of its economy coming from its steel production.

[citation needed] The Iron and Steel Base in Baotou is one of the "156 projects", which were constructed with the help of the Soviet Union to develop China's national economy in the 1950s and 1960s, and it continues this reputation until this day.

[citation needed] Until the middle of the 1960s, the steel complex at Baotou was one of the rare examples of industrialization in the periphery of China.

The electrical infrastructure of the city was also damaged, and soil liquefaction occurred around the swamps of the Yellow River.

[11] The city's gross domestic product peaked at about 386.763 billion renminbi (RMB) in 2016, and has shrunk significantly since then.

[15] Rare-earth minerals from the Bayan Obo Mining District, about 120 kilometres from Baotou, are processed in the city.

As per the 2020 Census, 20.19% of Baotou's population is aged 60 and older, 1.49 percentage points above the Chinese national average of 18.70%.

Baotou City ranges in latitude from 41° 20' to 42° 40' N and in longitude from 109° 50' to 111° 25' E. Baotou features a cold semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk), marked by long, cold and very dry winters, hot, somewhat humid summers, and strong winds, especially in spring.

Due to the aridity and elevation, temperature differences between day and night can be large, especially in spring.

5The claimed province of Taiwan no longer have any internal division announced by Ministry of Civil Affairs of PRC, due to lack of actual jurisdiction.