Some of the oblast's 316,900 square kilometers (122,400 sq mi) territory is inaccessible because it is covered with taiga woods and swamps.

[10] Major rivers which pass through the oblast include the Ob, Tom, Chulym, Chaya, Ket, Parabel, Vasyugan, and the Tym.

[10] Long before Siberia became part of Russia, the territory of modern Tomsk Oblast was inhabited by people belonging to the taiga Kulayskoy civilization known for its bronze artifacts.

The administrative center of the province, the city of Tomsk, was founded in 1604 by a decree of Tsar Boris Godunov.

[11][10] The city grew throughout the mid-20th century due to the migration of many Soviet institutions to Tomsk during World War II, the development of nuclear facilities in the region during the 1950s, as well as the beginning of petroleum production in the oblast during the 1960s and 1970s.

The Legislative Duma of the Tomsk Region consists of 42 deputies, and the current chairman is Oksana Kozlovskaya.

The deputies of the Duma of the Tomsk Oblast of the VI convocation (2016–2021) formed the following deputy associations: Tomsk Oblast is rich in natural resources such as oil, natural gas, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, peat, and various types of waters.

The oblast's main aviation center is the Tomsk Airport, which is served by a number of national airlines.

[14] Major ethnic groups living in the oblast are[9] Russians (92.1%), Ukrainian-Belarusian (1.4%), Volga-Siberian Tatars (1.7%) and Volga Germans (0.9%).

[16] Vital statistics for 2022:[17][18] Total fertility rate (2022):[19] 1.24 children per woman Life expectancy (2021):[20] Total — 69.70 years (male — 65.03, female — 74.36) According to a 2012 survey[21] 33.3% of the population of Tomsk Oblast adheres to the Russian Orthodox Church, 4% are unaffiliated generic Christians, 2% is an Eastern Orthodox Christian believer without belonging to any church or is a member of other Eastern Orthodox churches, 1% adheres to the Slavic native faith (Rodnovery) or local indigenous Siberian folk religions, 1% adheres to Islam, 0.62% to Tibetan Buddhism, and 0.4% to the Catholic Church.

In addition, 29% of the population declares to be "spiritual but not religious", 15% is atheist, and 13.68% follows other religions or did not give an answer to the question.

[11][23] Twelve years later, the first technological institute in Asian Russia, Tomsk Polytechnic University, was founded.

Tomsk Region is also ranked first in Russia in terms of the number of people engaged in R&D per capita with 160 researchers per 10,000 citizens.