Since 1 January 2003, the region has been divided into 15 "Municipalities with Extended Competence" which took over most of the administration of the former District Authorities.

Some of these are further divided into Municipalities with Commissioned Local Authority (in brackets): As of 1 January 2019, the total population of the region was 584,672 inhabitants.

[10] There are raw material resources on the region's territory, such as coal, heat-resistant and ceramic clays, and building stone limestone.

Plzeň Region is average in economic development when compared to the rest of the Czech Republic.

In 2011, the business sector in the Plzeň Region comprised 147,000 entities, the majority of which were sole traders.

A number of foreign investors based their establishments in the region in the recent decades, namely Panasonic AVC Networks Czech s.r.o.

(flat screen displays production), Yazaki Wiring Technologies Czech s.r.o (components for automobile industry), Vishay Electronic s.r.o.

There are 182 small protected areas in the Region and several wildlife parks have been designated to conserve the landscape variability.

Plzeň and its surroundings suffer from heavy road traffic and high concentration of industrial activities.

Moreover, the areas surrounding the municipalities Nýřany, Tlučná, Vejprnice, Břasy, Radnice, Stříbro and Ejpovice were affected by mining or quarrying activities.

The municipalities in the border areas of the Czech Republic and Germany form two Euroregions: the Bohemian Forest- the Bavarian Forest–Mühlveiertel and Egrensis.

Tourists are also attracted by a dense network of recreation and hiking trails, zoological and botanical gardens in Plzeň and hills in its surroundings – Krkavec, Chlum and Sylván with observation towers.

Other places of interest in the region are (in alphabetical order): Also the town of Domažlice and its traditional summer Chod Festival attract attention of many visitors.