The Wa East district was curved out of the Wa Municipality and made an autonomous district by L.I 1746 in July 2004. The district is remotely located in the southeastern part of the Upper West region.

The capital is Funsi, about 115km away from Wa, the regional capital. The district shares boundaries with West Mamprusi to the northwest, West Gonja to southeast and the Sissala East district to the north. It has a landmass of about 1,078km², which lies between latitudes 9º 55”n and 10º 25”n and longitude 1º 10”w and 2º 5”w..