Hongyuan County is under the jurisdiction of Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture in Sichuan Province. In 1960, Premier Zhou Enlai named Hongyuan County, meaning the prairie that the Red Army passed through during the Long March.

Hongyuan County has 6 towns and 4 townships, with a total area of 8400 square kilometers. In 2019, the total number of households in Hongyuan County was 14444. According to the data of the seventh population census, as of 0:00 on November 1, 2020, the permanent population of Hongyuan County was 46644.

On September 25, 2018, Hongyuan County was awarded the honorary title of "2018 Comprehensive Demonstration County of E-commerce in Rural Areas" by the Ministry of Commerce. In April 2019, the Sichuan Provincial People's Government decided to withdraw Hongyuan County from the poverty-stricken county sequence.

In 2020, Hongyuan County achieved a GDP of 1828.92 million yuan, up 2.7% year on year.