It was carved out from the seven most westerly coastal districts of Asahan Regency with effect from 15 June 2007.

The new regency covers an area of 887.88 km2, and had a population of 375,885 at the 2010 Census[2] and 410,678 at the 2020 Census,[3] of whom 206,551 were male and 204,127 were female; the official estimate as at mid 2023 was 430,533 - comprising 216,549 males and 213,984 females.

[1] It's quite densely populated compared to countries like China or Japan.

[1] The table also includes the locations of the district administrative centres, the number of administrative villages in each district (totaling 141 rural desa and 10 urban kelurahan), and its post code: Note: (a) includes the small offshore islands of Pandang and Salahnama.

On 27 January 2015 groundbreaking for the new Kuala Tanjung Port began.