Geographically the municipality is situated north of the mouth of the river Dalälven and is the southernmost municipality of the historical land of Norrland.

The present municipality was created in 1971, when the City of Gävle was amalgamated with four surrounding rural municipalities. All of them were original entities, instituted as municipalities by the local government acts of 1862. The area had not been affected by the national subdivision reform in 1952.

Gävle is situated by the Baltic Sea near the mouth of the river Dalälven. At 60 degrees north and 17 degrees east, Gävle has the same latitude as Helsinki and the same longitude as Vienna and Cape Town.

Gävle has a similar climate to the rest of central Sweden with an average temperature of −5 °C (23 °F) in January and 17 °C (63 °F) in July. Yearly rainfall is around 600 mm (24 in).

The municipal assembly (kommunfullmäktige) has 65 members, elected for a four-year period. The last election was held in September 2014. Eight parties are represented in the assembly. The largest party is the Swedish Social Democratic Party which has 25 seats. The current chairman of the municipal executive committee (kommunstyrelsen) is the social democrat Carina Blank.

Data from 2000.

(Source: [1])

The municipality's is twinned with:

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