The district of Sagar lies in the north central region of Madhya Pradesh. It was spelled as Saugar during the British period. It is situated between 23 deg 10’ and 24 deg 27’ north latitude and between 78 deg 4’ and 79 deg 21’ east longitude, the district has a truly central location in the country. The tropic of cancer passes through the southern part of the district. The district is bounded on the north by Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh, on the south by the district of Narsinghpur and Raisen, on the west by the district of Vidisha , and on the east by the district of Damoh, which was previously formed the part of Sagar District. On the north-east and north-west, the district adjoins Chhattarpur and Ashok Nagar districts, respectively. The district is accessible by rail as the town of Sagar lies on the Bina Katni branch line of Central railway. Sagar is 76 Km from Bina which is on the Bombay Delhi main line. The district is traversed by first class roads which connect it with important towns like Damoh and Jabalpur on the east and south east, respectively, Lalitpur and Jhansi on the north, Chhattarpur on the north east and Bhopal on the south-west. The origin of the name comes from the Hindi word SAGAR meaning lake or sea, apparently because of the large and once beautiful lake around which the town of Sagar has been built. Sagar was founded by Udan Singh in 1660 and was constituted a municipality in 1867.

A major road and agricultural trade centre, it has industries such as oil and flour milling, saw-milling , ghee processing , handloom cotton weaving, bidi manufacture and railway and engineering works. It is known in all over India due to its University named as Dr. Harisingh Gaur University and Army Cantonment. Head quarter of Forensic Science Lab is also in Sagar. District Sagar is predominantly a Scheduled Caste/Backward class district. These together form about 75% of the district. The district has sizable population of tribals who are named as Rajgonds after their kingdom.

In 2011, Sagar had population of 2,378,458 of which male and female were 1,256,257 and 1,122,201 respectively. If things are looked out at gender wise, male and female literacy were 84.85 and 67.02 respectively. Total literate in Sagar District were 1,545,719 of which male and female were 908,607. Average literacy rate of Sagar in 2011 were 76.46 compared to 67.73 of 2001. If things are looked out at gender wise, male and female literacy were 84.85 and 67.02 respectively.

As per 2011 census, 70.20 % population of Sagar districts lives in rural areas of villages. The total Sagar district population living in rural areas is 1,669,662 of which males and females are 884,133 and 785,529 respectively. In rural areas of Sagar district, sex ratio is 888 females per 1000 males. If child sex ratio data of Sagar district is considered, figure is 923 girls per 1000 boys. Child population in the age 0-6 is 265,661 in rural areas of which males were 138,138 and females were 127,523. The child population comprises 15.62 % of total rural population of Sagar district. Literacy rate in rural areas of Sagar district is 72.08 % as per census data 2011. Gender wise, male and female literacy stood at 81.82 and 61.04 percent respectively. In total, 1,011,982 people were literate of which males and females were 610,355 and 401,627 respectively.