It borders the country of Luxembourg to the east, the French departments of Ardennes, Meuse and Meurthe-et-Moselle to the south and southwest, and the Walloon provinces of Namur and Liège to the north.

Its capital and largest city is Arlon, in the south-east of the province, near the border of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

The province was separated from the grand-duchy by the Third Partition of Luxembourg, in 1830–31 by the Conference of London dealing with the consequences of the Belgian Revolution of 1830.

In 1839, after William I, King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg, agreed to the terms of the partition and the province was given to the newly created Kingdom of Belgium.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the province was €7.0 billion in 2018, accounting for 1.5% of Belgium's economic output.