Known internationally as a resort town, it has more than 30 motels and hotels, all geared to providing accommodation for the thousands of visitors who pass through every year. They arrive on one of three highways, Hwy 95 south from Golden, Hwy 93 southwest of the TransCanada Highway between Lake Louise and Banff, or north on 93/95 coming in from Montana and Idaho. The Village of Radium Hot Springs with a current population of 750 year round residents, was incorporated in 1992. It remains one of the province's fastest growing communities and has become a four season resort town.

Not counted among the village's 750 residents are some 200 members of a Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep band. Few other communities can match Radium for the numbers of sheep. Built on part of the band's winter range, Radium and valley residents have learned to live and work side-by-side with the sheep and appreciate the blue-listed species. The sheep are commonly seen in the village only from late autumn to mid-spring.

Like most valley communities, Radium has an interesting past. Human beings have been making the most of the healing waters for hundreds of years, beginning with the First Nations people who used Sinclair Pass for access between the Columbia and Kootenay valleys. In 1920, when its population consisted of a handful of construction workers and lumberjacks, accommodations neither so plentiful nor civilized as they are today. Two dollars a week bought you space shared with strangers in a tent with a bed made of clean hay, illuminated by candles stuck in empty whisky bottles. Use of the hot pool cost 50 cents or $1 a day for as many soaks as you wanted.