The 10 Gayest Places In Montana For 2026


The gayest cities in Montana are Hamilton and Kalispell for 2026 based on Saturday Night Science.

Gayest places in Montana research summary. We used Saturday Night Science to research the cities in Montana with the highest percent of same-sex households for 2026. The data comes from the American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year vintage, which counts same-sex married spouses and same-sex unmarried partners at the city level.

  • The city with the highest rate of same-sex houesholds in Montana is Hamilton. 1.93% of households in Hamilton are gay.

  • The city in Montana with the most same-sex houesholds is Billings with 561 gay households.

  • Montana is the 42nd most gay in the United States.

Gayest Cities In Montana Map


Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table


An estimated 0.62% of Montana residents are gay.

That means there are a total of 2,859 gay households in The Treasure State.

Our goal with this post is to use Saturday Night Science and data to determine the gayest cities in Montana.

After analyzing 27 cities with over 1,000 households, we’ve determined these are The Gayest Cities in Montana for 2026.

The 10 Gayest Places In Montana For 2026

  1. Hamilton
  2. Kalispell
  3. Shelby
  4. Great Falls
  5. Whitefish
  6. Billings
  7. Bozeman
  8. Missoula
  9. Lewistown
  10. Laurel

What’s the gayest place in Montana? According to the facts, Hamilton is the gayest place in Montana for 2026.

For more on how we calculated the top ten, and for more information about these places, read on.

For more Montana reading, check out:

The 10 Gayest Cities In Montana For 2026

Hamilton, MT

Source: Wikipedia User Itsa Ortiz | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Households: 2,748
Gay Households: 53 (6th highest)
% Gay Households: 1.93% (1st highest)
More on Hamilton: Data | Crime | Movers

Kalispell, MT

Source: Wikipedia User User: Dan Petesch | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Households: 11,795
Gay Households: 181 (5th highest)
% Gay Households: 1.53% (2nd highest)
More on Kalispell: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Shelby, MT

Source: Wikipedia User I, the copyright holder of this work, hereby publish it under the following license: | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Households: 1,183
Gay Households: 18 (10th highest)
% Gay Households: 1.52% (3rd highest)
More on Shelby: Data | Movers

Great Falls, MT

Source: Wikipedia User Montanabw | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

7
/10

Households: 26,379
Gay Households: 313 (2nd highest)
% Gay Households: 1.19% (4th highest)
More on Great Falls: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Whitefish, MT

Source: Wikipedia User Elkman | GFDL
Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Households: 4,302
Gay Households: 51 (7th highest)
% Gay Households: 1.19% (5th highest)
More on Whitefish: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Billings, MT

Source: Wikipedia User Sara goth | CC BY-SA 3.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Households: 50,994
Gay Households: 561 (1st highest)
% Gay Households: 1.1% (6th highest)
More on Billings: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Bozeman, MT

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Households: 23,970
Gay Households: 257 (4th highest)
% Gay Households: 1.07% (7th highest)
More on Bozeman: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Missoula, MT

Source: Wikipedia User w:en:Dsetay | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Households: 34,941
Gay Households: 298 (3rd highest)
% Gay Households: 0.85% (8th highest)
More on Missoula: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Lewistown, MT

Source: Wikipedia User | CC BY-SA 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Households: 2,880
Gay Households: 20 (9th highest)
% Gay Households: 0.69% (9th highest)
More on Lewistown: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

Laurel, MT

Source: Wikipedia User Forest Service Northern Region | CC BY 2.0
Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Households: 3,135
Gay Households: 14 (11th highest)
% Gay Households: 0.45% (10th highest)
More on Laurel: Data | Crime | Cost Of Living | Movers

How do you determine the best cities for same-sex households in Montana for 2026

In order to rank the gayest cities in Montana, we used Saturday Night Science and the 2020-2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the U.S. Census. We looked at:

  • Percentage of all households that are unmarried, same sex partners

We limited the analysis to non-CDPs that have over 1,000 households.

We ranked each place from 1 to 27 with the city containing the highest percentage of unmarried, same sex partners households being the most gay.

In the end, ended up being the the most gay place with 1.93% gay households.

Skip to the end to see the list of all the places in the state from gayest to straighest.

We updated this report for 2026. This report is our eleventh time ranking the gayest places in Montana.

There You Have It – The Most LGBT Friendly Cities In Montana For 2026

If you’re looking at the number of gay households in Montana, this is an accurate list.

The gayest cities in Montana are .

If you’re curious enough, here are the least gay places in Montana:

  • Libby
  • Polson
  • Sidney

For more Montana reading, check out:

Table: Gayest Places To Live In Montana

RankCityHouseholds% Gay Households
1Hamilton2,7481.93%
2Kalispell11,7951.53%
3Shelby1,1831.52%
4Great Falls26,3791.19%
5Whitefish4,3021.19%
6Billings50,9941.1%
7Bozeman23,9701.07%
8Missoula34,9410.85%
9Lewistown2,8800.69%
10Laurel3,1350.45%
11Havre3,7990.24%
12Helena15,7740.23%
13Belgrade4,8520.23%
14Miles City3,6080.17%
15Red Lodge1,3890.0%
16Livingston4,2760.0%
17Glendive1,9830.0%
18Deer Lodge1,3690.0%
19Glasgow1,3870.0%
20Columbia Falls2,2090.0%
21Hardin1,3940.0%
22Dillon1,7640.0%
23Cut Bank1,0870.0%
24Conrad1,0260.0%
25Sidney2,5050.0%
26Polson2,3800.0%
27Libby1,5120.0%
About Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar has been in the real estate business for almost ten years now. He originally worked for Movoto Real Estate as the director of marketing before founding HomeSnacks.

He believes the key to finding the right place to live comes down to looking at the data, reading about things to do, and, most importantly, checking it out yourself before you move.

If you've been looking for a place to live in the past several years, you've probably stumbled upon his writing already.

You can find out more about him on LinkedIn or his website.