Tucked into the southeastern corner of Saskatchewan, Stoughton sits approximately 142 kilometres southeast of Regina, where Highway 33 comes to its end. That highway connection is no small distinction – Highway 33 holds the record as the longest straight road in Canada and ranks fifth longest in the world. The town is also served by Highway 13 and Highway 47, making it a modest but well-connected community in the region. Stoughton additionally serves as the administrative headquarters for the Ocean Man First Nations band government, giving it a role beyond its size in local governance. Policing in the area is now handled by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, following the dissolution of the town’s earlier municipal force, the Stoughton Police Service.
The land where Stoughton now stands was once home to a small settlement called New Hope, founded just a few years before the Canadian Pacific Railway extended its line through this part of the province in 1904. When the CPR established its depot slightly south of the original community, the residents of New Hope simply relocated to be near it, and the new site took the name Stoughton. According to the 2021 census, the town had a population of 652 people living across 314 occupied private dwellings, out of a total of 378. That figure represents a modest increase of 0.5 per cent compared to the 2016 count of 649. With a land area of 3.45 square kilometres, Stoughton has a population density of roughly 189 people per square kilometre.