[3] The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Guinea Bissau.

Kasumulu in Kyela District serves as the primary entry and/or exit point into the Republic of Malawi, which is a neighboring country.

Tanzania's Southern Plateau's south highlands serve as a watershed for the area's primary drainage system.

The Great Ruaha, Zira, Songwe, Kiwira, Lufilyo, and Mbaka are some of the major rivers in the area.

One of the inlets to the Indian Ocean, the Great Ruaha River is supplied by the Kimani, Chimala, Igurusi, and other tributaries.

Less rainy areas, particularly in the region's north, encourage the development of dense acacia and other thorny tree thickets as well as woodland grassland.

[7]: 14-15 It was announced in February 2012 that the collapsed volcano approximately 200 kilometres (120 mi) north of Mbeya, Mount Ngualla, contained one of the largest rare earth oxide deposits in the world.

[7]: 20,45-51 Tanzania's Mbeya Region is renowned for producing a wide range of food crops, including maize, paddy, sorghum, beans, round potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, bananas, groundnuts, simsim, fruits, and vegetables.

Beans, wheat, sorghum, cow peas, and cocoyam are some more crops with an annual production below 100,000 tonnes.

[7]: 15-19 Coffee, tea, tobacco, pyrethrum, wheat, sunflower, spices, cocoa, and oil palm are the principal cash crops farmed in the area.

[7]: 45-51 Small-scale agroindustrial and forestry-based businesses make up the majority of the Mbeya Region's industrial sector.

Large gold reserves may be discovered across Chunya, Mbarali (Mabadaga), and Kyela (Mwalisi & Luvalisi).

[7]: 25-28 The historic native tribes of the Mbeya region are of Bantu origin, and it is thought that they have lived there for a very long period.

They are the Sangu, Safwa, Nyakyusa, Ndali, Kinga, Wanji, Lambya, Nyiha, Wungu, Kimbu & Rungwa.

The Maasai and Sukuma now live in the Chunya and Mbeya Districts as a result of extensive interregional and intraregional movement of tribes between 1970 and 1990.

In urban areas like Mbeya Municipality and the District centers, a fairly diverse tribal population is typical.

[11]: page 2  For 2002-2012, the region's 2.7 percent average annual population growth rate was tied for the tenth highest in the country.