It is surrounded by the districts of Fatehgarh Sahib & Rupnagar and the Union Territory of Chandigarh in the north, Sangrur district in the west, Ambala and Kurukshetra districts of neighbouring state of Haryana in the east and Kaithal district of Haryana in the south.

Patiala district is a predominantly rural district.. As per the 2001 census, an overwhelming 65% lived in rural areas and only 35% lived in urban areas.

After the partition of India in 1947, a large number of refugees from west Punjab came and settled in Patiala district. The single largest group of refugees was from Bahawalpur. Apart from this, a sizeable number came from Gujjranwala and Sheikhpura. According to the 1951 census, the total number of displaced persons in the district was 1,19,518.

The Sikhs and the Hindus are the predominant communities in the district. The Sikh form 55% of the population while the Hindus form 42%, the remaining being the Christians, the Muslim, the Jains and the Buddhists.

Geographically, Punjab is divided into four regions, know as Malwa. Majha, Doaba and Puadh. Patiala district falls in the Puadh region and standard dialect spoken in the district is known as Puadhi. Although this dialect is almost the same in grammar as the standard dialect of Punjabi language, the distinguishing character of this dialect is that ,to a very large extent, it is influenced by Hindi spoken in the adjoining districts which now a part of Haryana.