East Gojjam is bordered on the south by the Oromia Region, on the west by West Gojjam, on the north by South Gondar, and on the east by South Wollo; the bend of the Abay River defines the Zone's northern, eastern and southern boundaries.

This Zone was selected by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development in 2004 as one of the several areas for voluntary resettlement for farmers from overpopulated areas; no specific woredas in this Zone were identified in this program.

[2] Based on the 2007 Census conducted by the Central Statistical Agency of Ethiopia (CSA), this Zone has a total population of 2,153,937, an increase of 26.68% over the 1994 census, of whom 1,066,716 are men and 1,087,221 women; with an area of 14,004.47 square kilometers, East Gojjam has a population density of 153.80.

[4] According to a May 24, 2004 World Bank memorandum, 8% of the inhabitants of East Gojjam have access to electricity, this zone has a road density of 24.2 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers (compared to the national average of 30 kilometers),[5] the average rural household has 1.1 hectares of land (compared to the national average of 1.01 hectare of land and an average of 0.75 for the Amhara Region)[6] and the equivalent of 0.6 heads of livestock.

The memorandum gave this zone a drought risk rating of 447.