The area of the district is 4,321 square kilometers (1,668 sq mi).

[2] Within the framework of administrative divisions, Kansky District is one of the forty-three in the krai.

[1] The town of Kansk serves as its administrative center, despite being incorporated separately as a krai town[1]—an administrative unit with the status equal to that of the districts.

[10] A part of the Kansk-Achinsk lignite basin, which in the early 1980s was developed into one of the largest coal areas of the Soviet Union, lies within the district's boundaries.

The Trans-Siberian Railway runs through district territory from west to east.