The Zone is bordered on the south and the west by the Oromia Region, on the north by South Wollo, on the northeast by the Oromia Zone, and on the east by the Afar Region.

The highest point in the Zone is Mount Abuye Meda (4012 meters), which is found in the Gish woreda; other prominent peaks include Mount Megezez.

As a result, its subdivisions can be very confusing; Svein Ege, in his comparison of how the Central Statistical Agency (CSA) and the Ethiopian Mapping Authority reported the administrative boundaries in this Zone and how they changed between 1994 and 2004, stopped halfway through this Zone, stating that he had run out of time to perform field checking.

The zone is also the launching pad for the expansion and annexation of the rest of southern Ethiopia.

With an area of 15,936.13 square kilometers, North Shewa has a population density of 115.30.

[5] According to a May 24, 2004 World Bank memorandum, 4% of the inhabitants of North Shewa have access to electricity, this zone has a road density of 41.4 kilometers per 1000 square kilometers (compared to the national average of 30 kilometers),[6] the average rural household has 1.2 hectares of land (compared to the national average of 1.01 hectare of land and an average of 0.75 for the Amhara Region)[7] and the equivalent of 0.9 heads of livestock.