[2] In the 2011 Census, the population of this primarily rural area of 150,659 hectares, the largest district in North Yorkshire, was 51,700.

[3] The name refers to the River Rye and was previously used for the Ryedale wapentake of Yorkshire, which covered roughly the same area.

[8] In July 2021 the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced that in April 2023, the non-metropolitan county would be reorganised into a unitary authority.

Ryedale District Council was abolished and its functions transferred to a new single authority for the non-metropolitan county of North Yorkshire.

[9][10] The district lost about half its population in 1996, when an expanded City of York became a unitary authority area, specifically the parishes of Clifton Without, Earswick, Haxby, Heworth Without, Holtby, Huntington, Murton, New Earswick, Osbaldwick, Rawcliffe, Skelton, Stockton-on-the-Forest, Strensall, Towthorpe, and Wigginton.

[13] The village of Sherburn in what was eastern Ryedale is home to factories of both Severfield[14] and the Kingspan Group[15] who purchased the local Ward Brothers steelworks business.

[15] Between 1981 and 2022, the district had hosted the Ryedale Festival, which features concerts and performances at various venues during the summer months.

[16] In terms of television, the area is served by both BBC Yorkshire and ITV Yorkshire broadcasting from either the Emley Moor or Oliver's Mount TV transmitters [17][18] and BBC North East and Cumbria and ITV Tyne Tees which broadcast from the Bilsdale TV transmitter which is near Helmsley.