The district headquarters at Buyende are located approximately 30 kilometres (19 mi), by road, north of Kamuli, the nearest large town.

[1] This location lies approximately 100 kilometres (62 mi), by road, north of Jinja, the largest city in the sub-region.

Buyende District was created by an Act of Parliament and became operational on 1 July 2010.

The new district is primarily rural, with poor road infrastructure.

According to the 2002 national census, the subregion was home to an estimated 2.5 million people at that time.