It is located in the west of the oblast and bordered by Gordeyevsky and Krasnogorsky District in the north, Klintsovsky in the east, Zlynkovsky and Klimovsky in the south, and Homel region of Belarus in the west.

The area of the district is 990 square kilometers (380 sq mi).

[7] As a result of the Chernobyl disaster on April 26, 1986, part of the territory of Bryansk Oblast has been contaminated with radionuclides (mainly Gordeyevsky, Klimovsky, Klintsovsky, Krasnogorsky, Surazhsky, and Novozybkovsky Districts).

In 1999, some 226,000 people lived in areas with the contamination level above 5 Curie/km2, representing approximately 16% of the oblast's population.

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Novozybkovsky District is one of the twenty-seven in the oblast.