Verkhny Zub peak, the highest point of the oblast, is located in the eastern border.

The environmental conditions in Kuznetsk Basin are heavily influenced by the regional industrial activities, especially, by coal mining.

The report about the environmental conditions in Kemerovo region from 2014 indicated that there are more than 20 thousand of enterprises, emitting more than 250 types of atmospheric pollutants,[14] where most urban areas with the worst air quality are located in the Kuznetsk Basin: Novokuznetsk, Mezhdurechensk, Myski, Kaltan, Polysaevo, Belovo and Leninsk-Kuznetskiy.

The oldest city in Kemerovo Oblast is Novokuznetsk, founded in 1618, soon after Cossack ataman Yermak's push into Siberia.

In 1618, Kuznetsk fort was established in the south of the future oblast to protect the land from Russian and Mongolian Dzhungarian invaders.

After the October Revolution of 1917, Kuzbass experienced significant strife as part of the Russian Civil War.

Post revolutionary period was characterized by the transition to a planned economy, the creation of the Ural-Kuzbass industrial complex development of the coal, metallurgical and chemical industries Kuzbass Kemerovo Coke built, Kuznetsk Metallurgical Combine, a lot of new mines.

Industrial enterprises are being built near the workers' settlements, which quickly became a city: Kiselevsk Osinniki Krasnobrodsky, Tashtagol Kaltan Mezhdurechensk and others.

Kemerovo Oblast is one of Russia's most important industrial regions, with some of the world's largest deposits of coal.

The south of the region is dominated by metallurgy and the mining industry, as well as mechanical engineering and chemical production.

[22] Vital statistics for 2022:[23][24] Total fertility rate (2022):[25] 1.26 children per woman Life expectancy (2021):[26] Total — 67.61 years (male — 62.80, female — 72.37) Ethnic composition (2010):[20] As of a 2012 survey[28] 34.1% of the population of Kemerovo Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 7% declares to be nondenominational Christian (excluding the Protestant churches), 3% are members of Rodnovery, the Slavic folk religion, 1% are either believers of Orthodox Christianity not belonging to any church or members of other (non-Russian) Orthodox churches, 1% are Muslims, 5.9% are followers of other religion or people who did not give an answer to the survey.