The Municipality of Saltdal kommune is located at the heart of the County of Nordland, and stretches from fjord to mountains high. Saltdal is well-suited for agriculture. Farms are scattered along the flat valley floor, as well as along the fjord. Most farms are small, and many farmers have outside employment as well. The farmland is primarily used to grow animal food, as well as the odd potato crop. Animal husbandry (cattle and sheep) is the most common.
Saltdal is one of very few municipalities north of Saltfjellet with significant forest resources. Both pine and birch trees are logged, providing the raw material for industrial processing. There are long traditions for boat building here, and there is a boat building factory/shipyard at Rognan. There is also a mechanical workshop, nursery, saw mill, roof truss factory, plastic industry, concrete structures factory, etc.
Tourist attractions include Saltdal Museum, which has been established around an old farmstead from approx. 1750, the war cemeteries at Botn, the Blood Road, and Vensmoen, which until 1966 was a tuberculosis sanatorium. Vensmoen is also the longes wooden building in the Nordic region, erected around 1913–1916. The building was erected in the transitional period between Nordic Classicism and Art Nouveau, and exhibits features from both styles of architecture.
Saltdal's contribution to the "Footprints in the North" project is the Blood Road. During World War II, 9500 Eastern European prisoners of war were put to work building a road between Saltnes and Saksenvik. The Blood Road Museum sheds light on the plight of these prisoners of war, their life and work under the German regime from the time they arrived in 1942 until the war ended in 1945.
In the summer of 2013, the gallery Galleri Adde Zetterquist opened at Storjord in connection with the Nordland National Park Centre. The gallery has a permanent exhibit showcasing the work of artists Per Adde and Kajsa Zetterquist, in addition to several temporary exhibits.