In Hungarian, it is known as Szatmár megye, in German as Kreis Sathmar, in Ukrainian as Сату-Маре, and in Slovak as Satmárska župa.

Historically, Hungarians were concentrated in the cities, where administration resides, while the Romanian population was larger in the villages throughout the county.

Satu Mare County benefits from its position, close to the border of Romania with Hungary and Ukraine, and it is one of the places which attracts foreign investment in industry and agriculture.

The territory of Satu Mare County was transferred to Romania from Hungary as successor state to Austria-Hungary in June 1920 under the Treaty of Trianon.

In 1938, King Carol II promulgated a new Constitution, and subsequently he had the administrative division of the Romanian territory changed.

At the end of August 1940, the county was transferred back to Hungary with the rest of Northern Transylvania under the Second Vienna Award.

In October 1944, Romanian forces with Soviet assistance recaptured the ceded territory, with the Battle of Carei marking the complete reintegration of Northern Transylvania into Romania.

As a mother tongue in the urban area, Hungarian dominated (55.6%), followed by Romanian (31.1%), Yiddish (10.6%), German (1.4%), as well as other minorities.