Created in 2007, the ward elects four councillors using the single transferable vote electoral system and covers an area with a population of 17,739 people.

The ward was created following the Fourth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2007 Scottish local elections.

As a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, local elections in Scotland would use the single transferable vote electoral system from 2007 onwards so Kilmarnock West and Crosshouse was formed from an amalgamation of several previous first-past-the-post wards.

Kilmarnock West and Crosshouse includes the westernmost part of the council area between its borders with North Ayrshire and South Ayrshire and takes in the towns of Crosshouse, Gatehead and Knockentiber as well as the neighbourhoods of Hillhead, Bonnyton, Grange and Howard in Kilmarnock.

[2] Following the Fifth Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements ahead of the 2017 Scottish local elections, the ward's boundaries were not changed.