It is native to Central Asia and is found in Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan.

Blanford's jerboa was first described in 1884 by the British zoologist James Albert Murray, curator of the Karachi Museum and author of a number of books on the birds and mammals of the Indian subcontinent.

He named it "Jaculus blanfordi" in honour of the British geologist and zoologist William Thomas Blanford who was a member of the Indian Geological Survey and later published works on the fauna of India.

[1] Blanford's jerboa is a solitary rodent and digs long tunnels in hard ground in which to live.

This jerboa feeds on seeds and such desert plants as Artemisia aucheri, Anabasis aphylla and Peganum harmala, and pieces of stem and leaf have been found inside burrows.