Much of the state's highlands are part of the Nakawan Range, a subrange of the Tenasserim Hills system that spans through southern Myanmar, Southern Thailand and the Peninsular Malaysia, with Mount Perlis as the highest point at 733 m. The Nakawan also forms a natural frontier between Perlis and Thailand.

The main port and ferry terminal is at the small village of Kuala Perlis, linking mostly to Langkawi Island.

Another important lately developed area is Pauh Putra within the subdistrict of Kurong Anai which houses the main campus of Malaysia University of Perlis[9] and Politeknik Tuanku Syed Sirajuddin.

However, there are several theories: The honorific "Indera Kayangan" was given by Tuanku Raja Syed Hussin Jamalullail (who ruled Perlis from 1843 to 1873) after the royal town of Indera Kayangan II (1797 until 1813) he was raised in now located in Kampung Langgar, Kayang within the Kuala Perlis area.

During his reign as the Sultan of Kedah, he oversaw a treaty with George Leith to cede Province Wellesley to Penang.

Sultan Dhiauddin then made Syed Harun Jamalullail, father of the future first Raja of Perlis as chieftain of Arau as a wedding gift to his marriage with his daughter, Tengku Sofiah.

[19] This resulted in the 1826 Burney and Low Treaties[20] formalising relations between the two Malay states and Siam, their nominal overlord.

Sultan Ahmad and his armed supporters then fought in a series of war known as Perang Musuh Bisik for his restoration from 1830 to 1842.

After World War II, Perlis returned to British rule until it became part of the Malayan Union, then the Federation of Malaya in 1957, and lastly, Malaysia in 1963.

Like other west coast states, it has a coastline facing the Strait of Malacca, measuring around 20.4 km (12.7 mi) from Kuala Sanglang at the border with Kedah's Kubang Pasu District up north towards the Malaysia-Thailand border near Pos Batu Putih, in the vicinity of Kuala Perlis.

From south to north, its topographical profile consists of flat, arable lands of the Kedah–Perlis Plain dotted with numerous mogotes, and abruptly rises up high as rolling karstic hills of the Nakawan Range, which forms the natural boundary between the state and the province of Satun on the Thai side.

In general, paddy fields dominate much of the state's landscape as the Perlisian portion of the Kedah–Perlis Plain had been utilized for rice farming since antiquity.

After the 2022 state election, the Perikatan Nasional coalition, led by the Malaysian Islamic Party, holds 14 of the assembly's 15 seats.

The Raja prevailed, and swore in Md Isa, who proceeded to serve a full term as chief minister.

[27] The state elects three members of the federal House of Representatives, for the constituencies of Arau, Kangar and Padang Besar.

Besides that there is also Hokkien, Mandarin, English, Tamil, Malayalam as well as small numbers of Southern Thai speakers, mostly ethnic Malaysian Siamese.