[1] Located in southern Wisconsin, the district comprises southeastern suburban and exurban areas of Madison within southern Dane County, including the cities of Fitchburg and Stoughton, and part of the village of McFarland.

[3] Prior to the Wisconsin Supreme Court overturning the 2022 district boundaries, District 47 was often used as one of the more extreme examples of Gerrymandering in the Wisconsin Legislature with the boundaries being compared to "swiss cheese".

Under the 2011 and 2022 maps, the district had several non-contiguous territorial islands, due to the inclusion of the now defunct towns of Madison and Blooming Grove.

At the time, the towns had been mostly but not entirely annexed into the city of Madison, leaving a number of small territorial islands.

The inclusion of these towns without the wards of the city of Madison that connected those territories was part of the legal basis for the 2023 lawsuit which ultimately resulted in the legislative map being ruled unconstitutional.