City of Zhytomyr is not a part of the Zhytomyr raion: the city itself is designated as its own separate raion within the oblast; moreover Zhytomyr consists of two so-called "raions in a city": the Bohunskyi raion and the Koroliovskyi raion (named in honour of Sergey Korolyov). The current estimated population is 277,900 (as of 2005).

Zhytomyr is a major transportation hub. The city lies on a historic route linking the city of Kiev with the west through Brest. Today it links Warsaw with Kiev, Minsk with Izmail, and several major cities of Ukraine. Zhytomyr was also the location of Ozerne, a key Cold War strategic aircraft base located 11 km (6.8 mi) southeast of the city.

Important economic activities of Zhytomyr include lumber milling, food processing, granite quarrying, metalworking, and the manufacture of musical instruments.

Zhytomyr Oblast is the main center of the Polish minority in Ukraine, and in the city itself there is a large Roman-Catholic Polish cemetery, founded in 1800. It is regarded as the third biggest Polish cemetery beyond borders of Poland, behind the Lychakivskiy Cemetery in Lviv and Rossa Cemetery in Vilnius.

Zhitomir city has agricultural and teacher-training institutes. A lot of outstanding personalities were born in Zhitomir: writer V.G. Korolenko, pianist S.T. Rihter, space researcher and engineer S.P. Korolyov. A famous Russian writer A.I. Kuprin lived in Zhitomir. V.V. Mayakovsky visited Zhitomir city in 1928.