Politics of Montana - Cities and Towns

Cities and Towns

See also: List of cities and towns in Montana and List of counties in Montana

Montana has 56 counties with the United States Census Bureau stating Montana's contains 364 "places", broken down into 129 incorporated places and 235 census-designated places. Incorporated places consist of 52 cities, 75 towns, and two consolidated city-counties. Montana has one city, Billings, with a population over 100,000; and two cities with populations over 50,000, Missoula and Great Falls. These three communities are considered the centers of Montana's three Metropolitan Statistical Areas. The state also has five Micropolitan Statistical Areas centered on Bozeman, Butte, Helena, Kalispell and Havre. These communities, excluding Havre, are colloquially known as the "big 7" Montana cities, as they are consistently the seven largest communities in Montana, with a significant population difference when these communities are compared to those that are 8th and lower on the list. According to 2010 U.S. Census the population of Montana's seven most populous cities, in rank order, are Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Bozeman, Butte, Helena and Kalispell. Based on 2000 census numbers, they collectively contain 34 percent of Montana's population. and the counties containing these communities hold more than 60 percent of the state's population. The geographic center of population of Montana, however, is located in sparsely populated Meagher County, in the town of White Sulphur Springs.