It is located in the northeastern part of Ontario, centred on the city of North Bay.

By 1908, however, demographic changes resulted in Nipissing West being divided into two new districts, Sudbury and Sturgeon Falls, and the single riding of Nipissing was thus reconstituted and has been represented consistently in the Legislative Assembly ever since.

In 2005, legislation was passed by the Legislature to divide Ontario into 107 electoral districts, beginning with the provincial election in 2007.

The eleven northern electoral districts are those defined for federal purposes in 1996, based on the 1991 census (except for a minor boundary adjustment).

Without this legislation, the number of electoral districts in northern Ontario would have been reduced from eleven to ten.