The district is coterminous with the Buvuma Islands archipelago in Lake Victoria and does not have territory on mainland Uganda.

Kitamilo, the district headquarters, is approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi) south of the city of Jinja, the nearest large metropolitan area.

[2] Buvuma District is made up of 52 scattered islands in the northern part of Lake Victoria.

The largest island is called Buvuma, the name adopted by the new district, which was created by Act of Parliament on 1 July 2010.

The district has twenty-six gazetted forest reserves, although many are threatened by unregulated logging and burning to make charcoal.