The former City of Sollefteå (instituted in 1917) was amalgamated with the surrounding entities in 1974 to form the present municipality.

Historically, the name is found as early as the 13th century in the form of the Latin De Solatum, which would translate to "The Sunny Place" (or so).

Geographically, the landscape is dominated by woods, and by the Ångerman River and its tributaries Faxälven and Fjällsjöälven, which cross through the municipality.

This is a demographic table based on Sollefteå Municipality's electoral districts in the 2022 Swedish general election sourced from SVT's election platform, in turn taken from SCB official statistics.

[3] In total there were 18,763 residents, including 14,489 Swedish citizens of voting age.