Prior to the Hungarian administrative reforms of 1876 Szabolcs controlled some additional territory to the south-west giving it borders with Heves and Külső-Szolnok and the Nagykunság (part of the Jászkunság from 1745), as well as a small section of border with Békés.

[1] In the reforms of 1854 Szabolcs lost its western territory, including the Hajdúkerület and the later Dada alsó district (the salient along the Tisza) to the newly-established North Bihar county.

In the 18th and early 19th century Szabolcs was part of the Circulus/Districtus Trans-Tibiscanus ('circle/district beyond the Tisza'), one of four such districts within the Kingdom of Hungary.

These villages were returned to Hungary between 1938 and 1945, but were passed to the Soviet Union afterwards (they are part of Ukraine since 1991).

[4] Also, Szabolcs County had a sizeable population of Greek Catholics, who were of Ruthenian and Romanian origin and who became almost entirely Magyarized by the end of the 19th century.