The municipal area consists of cadastral communities of Ginau, Hallmoos, Maschl, Einöden, Plankenau, Reinbach, Rettenstein, St. Johann, and Urreiting.

The setting of the city allows the area to be largely dependent on tourism, Alpine skiing in winter and hiking in the summer months.

Under the rule of Prince-Archbishop Count Leopold Anton von Firmian in 1731, numerous inhabitants (called Exulanten) were forced to leave the country.

In 1939, following the Austrian Anschluss to Nazi Germany, St. Johann was renamed Markt Pongau and from 1941 was the site of the World War II Stalag XVIII-C (317) German prisoner-of-war camp run by the Wehrmacht.

[4] On 24 June 2000 St. Johann completed the Stadtserhebung process and received official city privileges from the Austrian government.