All of them were original entities, instituted as municipalities by the local government acts of 1862.

Gävle is situated by the Baltic Sea near the mouth of the river Dalälven.

Gävle has a similar continental climate to the rest of central Sweden with an average temperature of −5 °C (23 °F) in January and 17 °C (63 °F) in July.

This is a demographic table based on Gävle Municipality's electoral districts in the 2022 Swedish general election sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics.

The municipal assembly (kommunfullmäktige) has 65 members, elected for a four-year period.