The 32-square-kilometre (12 sq mi) municipality was located on the western part of the Bergen Peninsula.

The municipality was located along the Byfjorden, north of the Grimstadfjorden, and west of the Fyllingsdalen valley.

On 1 July 1921, the village area of Gyldenpris (population: 1,734) was transferred from Laksevåg to the growing city of Bergen, located to the east.

On 1 January 1972, the city of Bergen was expanded and the four surrounding municipalities of Laksevåg (population: 24,672), Arna, Fana, and Åsane, were all merged with Bergen to form one large urban municipality with over 200,000 residents.

The first element is the plural genitive case of the word lax which means "salmon".