Prior to its liquidation, the Chernobyl Raion had an area of 2,000 km2 (770 sq mi) and a population of 44,000.

[1] The Pripyat River flows through the territory of the former raion before emptying into the Kyiv Reservoir.

The Chernobyl Raion was established in 1923 out of transformation of Radomyslsky County and Chernobyl County (uyezds) which was created in 1919 within the Kyiv Governorate following an administrative reorganization of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.

[7] Today, most of the district former territory is located in the exclusion zone, where the ChNPP (Chernobyl Nuclear-Power Plant) service personnel live on a shift basis, and 135 (as of October 2017) samosely or "self-settlers"[8] permanently reside.

In 1980, it was given the status of a city of regional significance, administratively subordinate to the Kyiv Oblast authorities rather than the Chernobyl Raion.