The constituency was in the county of Devon, including eastern wards of Exeter City, and had a shoreline on the Jurassic Coast.

It was bounded on the west by the constituencies of Central Devon and Exeter and on the east by Tiverton and Honiton.

Sir Peter Emery, MP for Honiton since a 1967 by-election, represented the new East Devon seat until standing down in 2001, when Hugo Swire was elected.

In 2015, 2017 and 2019, the seat saw an unusually strong Independent performance, by the anti-austerity candidate Claire Wright, a Devon county councillor.

In 2019, East Devon was one of five English constituencies (the others being Cheltenham, Esher and Walton, Westmorland and Lonsdale and Winchester) where Labour failed to obtain over 5% of the vote, and thus lost its deposit.