The 130 km2 seat covers an area from Little Para River and Gould Creek in the north-east to Grand Junction Road in the south and Port Wakefield Road in the west, including the suburbs of Banksia Park, Fairview Park, Golden Grove, Greenwith, Gulfview Heights, Ingle Farm, Mawson Lakes, Modbury, Para Hills, Para Vista, Pooraka, Redwood Park, Ridgehaven, Salisbury East, Salisbury Heights, St Agnes, Surrey Downs, Tea Tree Gully, Valley View, Vista, Walkley Heights, Wynn Vale, Yatala Vale, and parts of Gepps Cross and Hope Valley.

[2] The electorate was a marginal mortgage belt seat, with a higher proportion of the population in the area paying off home loans.

Labor's Tony Zappia won the seat at the 2007 election, with a fairly safe 57.7 percent two-party vote against Liberal candidate Bob Day.

At the 2010 election, Zappia technically made it a safe Labor seat with a 62.2 percent two-party vote, again the strongest result for any party in Makin's history.

ABC psephologist Antony Green listed Makin as one of eleven which he classed as bellwether electorates in his 2016 election guide.