The topography of the district is layered with lower regions at an elevation of 160–180 m, and higher terrain features reaching 200–240m.

The regional climate is continental with humid warm summers and moderately severe snowy winters.

[7] The sun on the district coat of arms symbolizes the developed energy complex of the region.

The silver represents the purity of spring water, perfection, nobility, mutual understanding.

[8][9] The eastern border of Volga Bulgaria lay between the Sheshma and Zai rivers in the 11th century.

[10] In the Middle Ages, a branch from the Great Silk Road to the ancient city of Syudum passed through the territory of the modern Zainsky district.

The Menzelinsky district became part of the newly formed Tatar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic as cantons of the same name in 1920.

The construction of industrial buildings and a cooling reservoir of the Zainsk regional state power plant began on the left bank of the Stepnoy Zai in 1956.

[17] The village of Stary Tokmak in the Zainsk region is known for being the landing site of the space descent vehicle No.

The administrative centers of the rural settlements are the villages: Aksarino, Aleksandrovskaya Sloboda, Sredniy Bagryazh, Begishevo, Bukharay, Verkhniy Nalim, Verkhniye Pinyachi, Verkhniye Shipki, Gulkino, Durt-Muncha, Kadyrovo, Nizhneye Bishevo, Novospassk, Popovka, Poruchikovo, Savaleyevo, Sarmash-Bash, Svetloye Ozero, Staroye Mavrino, Tyugeyevka, Ursayevo, and Chubukly.

The district is home to the largest power plant in the Volga region run by a branch of "Tatenergo".

[14][26] The plant constructed houses for automobile workers, a school, kindergartens, and other social facilities in the administrative center of the district.

It is one of the largest holdings in the Volga region, capable of simultaneously storing 150 thousand tons of grain.

Spring wheat, winter rye, sugar beets, barley, buckwheat, peas, and corn are primarily cultivated in the region.

[30][24] The sector of agriculture and processing industry is a quarter of its own revenues of the budget of the Zainsky district in 2020.

[31] In the period from 2010 to 2020, the ratio of the average monthly wage to the minimum consumer budget increased from 1.95 to 2.5 times.

[34] According to the Committee of the Republic of Tatarstan for Socio-Economic Monitoring, regional fixed capital investments (in the full range of economic entities) amounted to 1.2 billion rubles or 0.6% of total investment in Tatarstan in the first half of 2020.

[35] According to the Federal State Statistics Service of the republic, almost 2 billion rubles of investment were attracted to the Zainsky district in 2019 (excluding budgetary funds and income from small businesses).

Stations and stopping points in the area (from Naberezhnye Chelny) are Begishevo, Zycha, Zainsk, Svetloye Ozero, Mavrino.

They are inhabited by moles, hedgehogs, squirrels, dormouse, white hares, martens, foxes, roe deer; of birds - gray owls, house owls, great spotted woodpeckers, black grouses, sparrow hawks, turtle doves, common buntings and gray flycatchers.

[7] Local newspapers Zuy ofyklary ('Zainskie horizons') and New Zai are published in Tatar and Russian in the Zainskiy district.

In addition to it, the Begishevskaya district hospital and 53 local medical points operate to serve the rural population in the region.