It is located along the Copăceanca river, about 22 kilometres from the station in Drochia.

Two villages are administered by the city, Bălanul Nou and Rămăzan.

During the interwar period, the city was the seat of Plasa Râșcani, in Bălți County, Romania.

A number of Bessarabian Germans lived in the village from its founding in 1865, who called it Ryschkanowka.

In the USSR era, Rîșcani was home to a number of factories, a state agrotechnic school, and tobacco farms.