[1][4]: 12 The districts climate is hot semi-arid with the BSh Koppen-Geiger system classification.

[4]: 12 Wards (2016 population)[6]: 131 In 2016 the Tanzania National Bureau of Statistics report there were 272,249 people in the district, from 250,727 in 2012.

People of the district are of the tribes of Wasukuma, Wasumbwa, and Wanyamwezi with small populations of Waha, Wahangaza and Wadakama.

A paved national trunk road that runs between the city of Shinyanga and town of Kahama through Isaka, and southern part of the district, near the border with the Tabora Region.

[1][8] A metre-gauge railway of the Mwanza branch of Central Line runs through the district with a station in Isaka.