Situated near the Alberta-Saskatchewan border in central Alberta, Provost lies at the crossroads of Highway 13 and Highway 899, roughly 19 kilometres west of the provincial boundary. The town’s economy rests on two main pillars: agriculture and the oilfield industry, both of which have long shaped the character of the surrounding region. Provost is served by two local newspapers, The Provost News and the East Central Alberta Review, which together keep residents connected to local and regional affairs. Two schools serve the community: Provost Public School, with around 400 students enrolled under the Buffalo Trail Regional Division No. 28, and St. Thomas Aquinas School, a Catholic school of approximately 246 students belonging to East Central Alberta Catholic Schools Regional Division No. 16.
The town was originally known as Lakeview before being renamed in 1907 by the Canadian Pacific Railway Land Department. Rail service arrived in 1910, and a post office was established in 1908, the same year both the original Methodist Church and the Anglican Church were built. By 1922, a third church had been constructed, considered the largest rural neo-gothic church in Alberta. According to the 2021 federal census, Provost had a population of 1,900 residents living in 764 of its 862 private dwellings, spread across a land area of 4.75 square kilometres, giving the town a population density of 400 people per square kilometre. This represented a modest decline from the 1,998 residents recorded in 2016 and 2,041 in 2011. Among its notable former residents are professional hockey players Norm Ullman, Lance Bouma, and Curtis Glencross, as well as potter and artist Mary Borgstrom and military commander Don C. Laubman.