The district also includes the towns of Downham Market and Hunstanton, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas.

The neighbouring districts are North Norfolk, Breckland, West Suffolk, East Cambridgeshire, Fenland and South Holland.

[4] The district was awarded borough status on 30 January 1981, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor.

[8][9] The council has been under no overall control since the 2023 election, being run by a coalition of most of the independent councillors, the Liberal Democrats and the Greens with informal support from Labour.

The elections are run at different times across the country with King's Lynn and West Norfolk's typically being in early Spring and bi-annually.

The council generally meets at the Town Hall on the Saturday Market Place in King's Lynn, parts of which date back to the 1420s, having replaced an earlier guildhall on the site which burnt down in 1421.