It is located in Manitoba's Parkland region, between Riding Mountain National Park near the province's western border with Saskatchewan.

The Rural Municipality of Riding Mountain West was incorporated on January 1, 2015, via the amalgamation of the RMs of Shellmouth-Boulton and Silver Creek.

[3] The Government of Manitoba initiated these amalgamations in order for municipalities to meet the 1997 minimum population requirement of 1,000 to incorporate a municipality.

The RM of Shellmouth–Boulton was created through an earlier amalgamation of the RMs of Boulton and Shellmouth in 1999.

[4] Constituent communities of Riding Mountain West include:[5] In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Riding Mountain West had a population of 1,442 living in 663 of its 987 total private dwellings, a change of 1.5% from its 2016 population of 1,420.