Fallon is located in Churchill County, of which it is the county seat, just east of Reno between Lovelock and Hawthorne along US Highway 95 near Soda Lake and the Sheckler Reservoir in the Central Region of the state.
The population estimate for July 1, 1998 was 8,587, an increase of 2,157 since 1990.
It was named for Michael Fallon, a settler and Fallon benefitted from the Newlands irrigation project in the early 1900s.