The district's overall levels of education and income care among the highest in Turkey, the literacy rate reaching 90 per cent, and the average yearly income per inhabitant calculated to be 13.054 US Dollars, as a consequence of the choice of Güzelbahçe as domicile by many among the affluent classes of İzmir in the last decade, who continue to settle in housing projects of villa-type residences built in Güzelbahçe and its dependencies.

Construction of luxury homes and settlement by many residents with U.S. or European educational and professional backgrounds resulted in the appearance of American-style suburban living in certain parts of the district.

Nevertheless, the subsistence of a part of the population, usually older settlers, is still derived from local activities such as fishing, viniculture, other forms of agriculture - particularly greenhouse cultivation with emphasis on production of decorative plants and flowers - and sections in the district retain their rural character.

Güzelbahçe district area follows a section in the southern shore of the inner Gulf of İzmir alongside a narrow coastal strait delimited by mid-height hills.

In 1936, its population already having exceeded two thousand people, its municipal administration was formed, which still depended Urla at the time, and its name was changed into "Kızılbahçe" (red garden).

In 1958, its municipal area was separated from Urla district and was attached to İzmir center, and the name was changed into Güzelbahçe (the beautiful garden) for the first time, reportedly to avoid political connotations associated with the color "Red" at the height of the Cold War.