The district also includes the towns of Ilfracombe, Lynton and Lynmouth and South Molton along with numerous villages, seaside resorts and surrounding rural areas.

The district borders Torridge to the south-west, Mid Devon to the south-east, and the neighbouring county of Somerset to the east.

The first election to the council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority before coming into its powers on 1 April 1974.

The council's main offices are at the Brynsworthy Environment Centre near Barnstaple (the building is in the parish of Fremington).

[25][26] The council's main customer service centre is located at Lynton House, Commercial Road, Barnstaple, and it also maintains area offices in Ilfracombe and South Molton.

The Beeching cuts in the mid-sixties left the branch line to Exeter as the area's only railway service.

The eastern section of the A39 links Barnstaple to Lynton, then crosses the northern coastal hills of Exmoor into Somerset.

North Devon is some distance from the UK's traditional areas of industrial activity and population yet boasts some major manufacturing sites that export around the world, among them TDK Lambda and Pall Europe in Ilfracombe, Eaton Aerospace and Norbord in South Molton, Perrigo in Braunton and multiple businesses in Barnstaple.

Due to the historically agricultural nature of the economy alongside a strong tourism industry employment can be seasonal.

The 1989 opening of the new Link Road connection to the motorway network helped to promote trade, but it had a temporary detrimental effect on a number of distribution businesses.

The latter had previously viewed the town as a base for local distribution networks, a need that was removed with an approximate halving of travelling time to the M5 motorway.

2018 has seen significant Government investment in the area through Coastal Community grants and Housing Infrastructure funds, as well as £83 million to further upgrade the North Devon Link Road.

Barnstaple is on the River Taw estuary, and functions as the main service centre for North Devon.