[citation needed] The district is located in the north of Buryatia, encompassing the northern part of Lake Baikal from three sides.

In the west and north, the area along the watershed of the Baikal Mountains and the North Baikal Highlands borders on Irkutsk Oblast; in the east, along the ranges connecting the Northern Muya Range and Southern Muya Range it borders with the Muisky District and a small section of the Bauntovsky District; in the southeast it includes the watershed of the Barguzin Range and borders with the Kurumkansky District and in the far south, with a small area of the Barguzinsky District.

Within the framework of administrative divisions, Severo-Baykalsky District is one of the twenty-one in the Republic of Buryatia.

[1] It is divided into four urban-type settlements (administrative divisions with the administrative centers, correspondingly, in the urban-type settlements (inhabited localities) of Kichera, Nizhneangarsk, Novy Uoyan, and Yanchukan) and six selsoviets, all of which comprise eight rural localities.

The district is also home to the Kholodninsky mine, one of the largest lead and zinc deposits in Russia.