The 10 Richest Cities In Montana For 2023


We analyzed 33 places in Montana to determine where the 1% live.

Three Forks, Whitefish, Belgrade: These cities aren’t just some of the best places to live in Montana. They are also home to some of the richest people in the Treasure State.

Three Forks in particular houses the richest residents in the state thanks, in part, to a median household income of $70,405 and a ridiculously low poverty rate of 7.591093117408906%.

If you’re thinking of moving to one of these towns, you’ll probably need to start saving. The richest places in Montana share common characteristics such as having a genius level populous, sky high home prices, and a Pleasantville level of married couples.

How did we come up with these mega wealthy cities? We analyzed Census data from the 2017-2021 American Community Survey for the 34 places in Montana with more than 2,000 people.

Here are the 10 richest places in Montana for 2023:

  1. Three Forks
  2. Whitefish
  3. Belgrade
  4. Glasgow
  5. Laurel
  6. Helena
  7. Colstrip
  8. Bozeman
  9. Billings
  10. Shelby

For more on how we calculated the top ten, read on or skip to the end for the full list of the richest cities in Montana.

Rich people not your cup of tea? Feel free to check out some more reading about Montana:

The 10 Richest Cities In Montana For 2023

1. Three Forks

Three Forks, MT

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 2,084
Rank Last Year:
Median Income: $70,405
Unemployment Rate: 2.7%
Poverty Rate: 7.6%
More on Three Forks: Real Estate | Photos

2. Whitefish

Whitefish, MT

Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 7,783
Rank Last Year: 7 (Up 5)
Median Income: $64,595
Unemployment Rate: 3.4%
Poverty Rate: 4.9%
More on Whitefish: Real Estate | Photos

3. Belgrade

Belgrade, MT

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 10,555
Rank Last Year: 2 (Down 1)
Median Income: $72,921
Unemployment Rate: 1.1%
Poverty Rate: 12.0%
More on Belgrade: Real Estate | Photos

4. Glasgow

Glasgow, MT

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 3,192
Rank Last Year: 12 (Up 8)
Median Income: $55,943
Unemployment Rate: 1.8%
Poverty Rate: 8.1%
More on Glasgow: Real Estate | Photos

5. Laurel

Laurel, MT

Overall SnackAbility

6
/10

Population: 7,164
Rank Last Year: 3 (Down 2)
Median Income: $59,444
Unemployment Rate: 2.3%
Poverty Rate: 9.6%
More on Laurel: Real Estate | Photos

6. Helena

Helena, MT

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 32,060
Rank Last Year: 6 (No Change)
Median Income: $59,712
Unemployment Rate: 3.5%
Poverty Rate: 9.4%
More on Helena: Real Estate | Photos

7. Colstrip

Colstrip, MT

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

8.5
/10

Population: 2,094
Rank Last Year: 5 (Down 2)
Median Income: $81,424
Unemployment Rate: 5.2%
Poverty Rate: 7.4%
More on Colstrip: Real Estate | Photos

8. Bozeman

Bozeman, MT

Source: Public domain
Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 51,574
Rank Last Year: 11 (Up 3)
Median Income: $67,354
Unemployment Rate: 2.9%
Poverty Rate: 14.9%
More on Bozeman: Real Estate | Photos

9. Billings

Billings, MT

Overall SnackAbility

8
/10

Population: 115,689
Rank Last Year: 4 (Down 5)
Median Income: $63,608
Unemployment Rate: 4.1%
Poverty Rate: 11.1%
More on Billings: Real Estate | Photos

10. Shelby

Shelby, MT

Overall SnackAbility

5
/10

Population: 3,139
Rank Last Year: 9 (Down 1)
Median Income: $47,389
Unemployment Rate: 1.5%
Poverty Rate: 8.3%
More on Shelby: Real Estate | Photos

Methodology: How We Determined The Richest Places In Montana For 2023

Map Of The Richest Places To Live In Montana
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the richest places is to simply identify personal incomes. After all, rich people have really high salaries.

However, we don’t believe that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “richest places”. So we looked at this set of criteria from the newly released 2017-2021 American Community Survey:

  • Poverty Level
  • Median Household Income
  • Unemployment Rate

Median household income is the most digestible way to understand how rich a place really is. The unemployment rate tries to capture the prospects for more people to become rich. If more people are employed, the richer the future looks.

After we collected the data for all 34 places with more than 2,000 people in Montana, we ranked each place from 1 to 34 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the richest.

We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Rich Score” with the place having the lowest overall Rich Score, Three Forks, crowned the “Richest City In Montana For 2023”. You can download the data here.

You can learn more about the top ten below or skip to the end to see the rankings for all 34 places.

Summary: The Wealthiest Places In Montana For 2023

Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the richest places in Montana, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Montana.

When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very top of the income ladder for everyone that lives there.

If you’re curious enough, here are the poorest cities in Montana, according to data:

Poorest: Wolf Point
2nd Poorest: Hardin
3rd Poorest: Anaconda-Deer Lodge County

For more Montana reading, check out:

Detailed List Of The Richest Cities In Montana

Rank City RichScore Median Income
1 Three Forks 5.67 $70,405
2 Whitefish 6.33 $64,595
3 Belgrade 7.33 $72,921
4 Glasgow 8.67 $55,943
5 Laurel 9.33 $59,444
6 Helena 10.67 $59,712
7 Colstrip 11.33 $81,424
8 Bozeman 12.0 $67,354
9 Billings 12.67 $63,608
10 Shelby 12.67 $47,389
11 Columbus 12.67 $60,813
12 Sidney 12.67 $55,611
13 Malta 15.0 $50,324
14 Havre 15.0 $58,513
15 Livingston 17.0 $51,599
16 Kalispell 17.33 $55,411
17 Townsend 17.67 $60,587
18 Glendive 18.0 $51,924
19 Great Falls 18.0 $53,126
20 Red Lodge 18.67 $47,727
21 Deer Lodge 19.33 $40,515
22 Columbia Falls 19.67 $56,860
23 Hamilton 21.0 $37,868
24 Libby 22.0 $39,044
25 Missoula 22.33 $54,423
26 Miles City 22.67 $54,265
27 Polson 23.33 $45,565
28 Dillon 24.67 $39,488
29 Conrad 25.0 $49,167
30 Lewistown 25.67 $37,588
31 Cut Bank 26.0 $44,159
32 Anaconda-Deer Lodge County 26.33 $44,809
33 Hardin 28.0 $51,566
34 Wolf Point 30.33 $49,509

How Is The Area In ?

Editor’s Note: Data has been updated for 2023. This is our tenth time ranking the richest cities in Montana.

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.