It was one of the former 26 rural districts of Latvia and it consisted of 20 local communities.

[1] These included three towns: Talsi district was located in the northern part of Courland.

The district covered 2,751 square kilometers (1,062 sq mi), or 4.1% of the whole territory of Latvia.

Woodland covered 55% of Talsi district's territory, 29% was agricultural land, 3.5% was water, and 3.4% (9,400 ha; 23,200 ac) were swamps, of which peat production covered 1,700 ha (4,200 ac).

Nationalities included Latvians - 92%, Russians - 4%, others (Romanis, Belarusians and Ukrainians) - 4%.