It is located in Census Division 17, around the Lesser Slave Lake.

[3] The following urban municipalities are surrounded by Big Lakes County.

The following Métis settlements and Indian reserves are located within Big Lakes County.

[7] This includes the populations of three Métis settlements, East Prairie (304), Gift Lake (658) and Peavine (607),[8] located within the census subdivision that are municipalities independent of Big Lakes County.

[11] Big Lakes had the most Métis people per capita of any Canadian census subdivision in 2006 with a population of 5,000 or more due to the census' inclusion of the population of the three Métis settlement municipalities within Big Lakes' totals.