The jurisdiction was created in 1926 and populated predominantly by Poles, with notable minorities of Belarusians, Jews and Lithuanians.

Before 1926, the voivodeship's area was known as the Wilno Land; it had the same boundaries and was also within the contemporary borders of Poland at the time.

In 1922, after a disputed election to the Vilnius Sejm, the parliament voted to incorporate Central Lithuania into the Second Polish Republic.

Currently the former territory of Wilno Voivodeship is divided between the Vilnius and Utena counties in Lithuania and the Grodno, Minsk and Vitebsk Regions of Belarus.

[8][9] Following the Polish territorial changes after World War II, a significant part of the Polish population was repatriated to the newly formed People's Republic of Poland as Wilno Voivodeship was split and incorporated into the Lithuanian and Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republics.

[10] The Polish population that remained in Lithuania was subjected to attempts at Lithuanization (in the 1950s), which were thwarted by Moscow,[11] and to Russification and Sovietization policies.

A large part of the population was poor, with a high level of illiteracy (in 1931, 29.1% was illiterate, with the national average of 23.1%).

Railway network was scarce, with only a few junctions - the most important one at Wilno, also at Molodeczno, Królewszczyzna [pl] and Nowa Wilejka.

[12] The results of the 1931 census (questions about mother tongue and about religion) are presented in the table below: Counties with plurality or majority other than Polish and other than Roman Catholic are highlighted with yellow.