It borders Xuzhou to the northwest, Lianyungang to the northeast, Huai'an to the south, and the province of Anhui to the west.

Suqian was said to be the site of a military grain store built when the Emperor Yuan of Jin reigned.

Then the county was annexed by Xuzhou and renamed Suqian in 762 because the homophone "yu (豫)" as the given name of the Emperor Daizong of Tang was deemed to be ineffable.

[3] The county was put under the jurisdiction of Huaiyang military prefecture during the Song dynasty, then was transferred to Pizhou after Jurchen's Jin took it.

As of the 2020 Chinese census, Suqian had a recorded population of about 4,986,192 whom 1,622,912 lived in the built-up (or metro) area made of Sucheng and Suyu urban districts.