Roughly 117 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, Willingdon sits within the County of Two Hills No. 21 in central Alberta. The community covers a compact land area of 0.92 square kilometres, and as of the 2021 federal census, 249 residents called it home across 104 occupied private dwellings out of a total of 159. That figure represented a notable decline of approximately 21.9 percent compared to the 319 residents recorded in the 2016 census, which itself had reflected a 16 percent increase from the 275 people counted in 2011. Population density in 2021 stood at around 270.7 people per square kilometre.
Willingdon has a modest but interesting administrative history. It was originally incorporated as a village on August 31, 1928, and operated under that status for nearly nine decades before dissolving back into hamlet status on September 1, 2017, coming under the direct jurisdiction of the County of Two Hills No. 21. One notable landmark connected to the community’s agricultural heritage is a traditional wooden grain elevator constructed in 1985 by the Alberta Wheat Pool – at the time of its construction, it was considered one of only two remaining traditional wooden grain elevators of its kind still being built in the province.