The municipality is located between the city of Salzburg in the east and the Austrian border with Germany in the west.

It was established in 1948 by the merger of Wals and Siezenheim, after parts of its territories had been incorporated into the Salzburg city limits.

The whole municipal area belongs to the suburbs of Salzburg, however, no further amalgamation efforts have been made so far.

The Walserberg locality is widely known for the former border checkpoint on the Austrian West Autobahn to the German Bundesautobahn 8.

The municipal area includes 10 communities (In the brackets you can see the figure of inhabitants, standing 31 October 2011): Starting at direction 1 o'clock, clockwise: The oldest locality Siezenheim was already settled in Roman times and got his name of the Roman aristocrator Sizo.