Do you live in one of the murder capitals of Montana?
We all watch the news with horror when we hear about a homicide that happens not that far away from us. While a murder just blocks or even a couple of towns away from your house would make anyone uneasy, in the long run, most likely, where you live is relatively safe.
To find the cities in Montana with the most murders and the highest murder rates per capita, we used Saturday Night Science to compare the FBI crime data on murders for the 7 cities in the Treasure State with over 2,000 residents.
What city has the highest murder rate in Montana? The city with the highest murder rate in Montana is Conrad with 41 murders per 100,000 people.
What is the city in Montana with highest number of murders? The city in Montana with the highest number of murders is Billings with 9 murders.
Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town in Montana ranked. There were ‘only’ 7 cities in Montana where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 25 places had no murder.
41 per 100k · #1 highest murder rate in Montana
33 per 100k · #2 highest murder rate in Montana
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
17 per 100k · #3 highest murder rate in Montana
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
8 per 100k · #4 highest murder rate in Montana
Located in
Gallatin County, Montana
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
7 per 100k · #5 highest murder rate in Montana
Located in
Yellowstone County, Montana
Billings is the largest city in the state of Montana, and the principal city of the Billings Metropolitan Area with a population of 166,855. It has a trade area of over half a million people.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
3 per 100k · #6 highest murder rate in Montana
Located in
Lewis and Clark County, Montana
Helena is the state capital of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
3 per 100k · #7 highest murder rate in Montana
Located in
Missoula County, Montana
Missoula is a city in the U.S. state of Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluences with the Bitterroot and Blackfoot Rivers in western Montana and at the convergence of five mountain ranges, thus is often described as the “hub of five valleys”. In 2016, the United States Census Bureau estimated the city’s population at 72,364 and the population of the Missoula Metropolitan Area at 116,130. In the 1990s, Missoula overtook GreatFalls as Montana-s secondlargest city, behind Billings. Missoula is home to the University of Montana, a public research university.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Montana’s statewide median.
On the map
Where Montana’s murders happen
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we calculated the murder capitals of Montana
While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in a state are the most dangerous, we wanted to rely on something other than speculation and opinion. Instead, we used Saturday Night Science to compare the hard numbers from the FBI’s last year of reporting. Specifically, we analyzed the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, which summarizes the number of murders in each city annually.
We only looked at every single city in Montana for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 7 cities to rank.
We took the number of murders per capita as the ranking factor. The place with the most murders per capita based on the most recent data is Conrad. It is our eleventh time ranking the places with the most murders per capita in Montana. We updated the list for 2026.
The full plate
Murder Rates By City In Montana
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
Source: FBI Uniform Crime Report. 7 Montana cities that reported a murder.
Summary
Summary: The Places With The Most Murders In Montana For 2026
If you’re looking at the places in Montana with the most murders, and where residents have the highest chances of being killed themselves, this is an accurate list. Again, these statistics are an indication of where crimes occur, not a statement about the effectiveness of the law enforcement in the areas they serve.
The cities with the highest murder per capita in Montana are Conrad, Cut Bank, Polson, Belgrade, Billings, Helena, Missoula.
