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Place dossier plate
SheetMT-CHESTER-MT · Chester, MT 704 pop · income 25th pct · 1 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Chester
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Chester on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Cullen · lowest
17,955
Cullen · lowest
17,955 median HH income
15.7% of the leader · rank #1
Live Oak · near
53,578
Live Oak · near
53,578 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #2
Plainfield · near
53,578
Plainfield · near
53,578 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #3
Fort Bragg · near
53,580
Fort Bragg · near
53,580 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #4
Chester · this city
53,583
Chester · this city
53,583 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #5
Zolfo Springs · near
53,587
Zolfo Springs · near
53,587 median HH income
47.0% of the leader · rank #6
Blooming Glen · highest
114,112
Blooming Glen · highest
114,112 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Chester on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 704.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Chester places in the 25th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
25th
percentile, household income
29th
percentile, home value
61st
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Chester, MT
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 704 residents in Chester, a small town within Montana. Households in Chester report a median income of $53,583 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.7%. Chester's housing stock carries a median value of $156,900, and the median resident age is 53.3 years. About 27.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 46.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Chester's yearly average temperature at 41.3°F with 12.3 inches of precipitation per year and 36.5 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Montana run below the national norm: the state registers 94.6 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,336 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $175 across Montana, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 33.3 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Chester's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to within-city variation to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Chester, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Chester?
Within Montana, the closest population matches are Woods Bay (696 residents, $95,781 income); Wibaux (686 residents, $64,115 income); Pioneer Junction (734 residents, $42,250 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are McDonald Chapel, AL (704 residents); Kiowa, CO (704 residents); University Park, IA (704 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 41.3°F, with 12.3 inches of precipitation and 36.5 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Montana is 33.3 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 27.0% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Chester?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Household income
$53,583
Home value
$156,900
Value / income
2.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Chester?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 71.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
5.2%
Drive alone
71.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 232 workers age 16+.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.1% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-0.1%
2025 estimate
844
2020 estimate
845
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 12.7% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Montana average
D
City profile score · Chester, MT
42/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living B-
94.6 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share C-
27.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$53,583
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Chester profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 66/100 (B-) · 94.6 index
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 27.0%
Poverty rate: 29/100 (F) · 12.7%
Household income: 25/100 (F) · $53,583
How does Chester compare to other US cities?
Chester measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income25% higher than other cities
Home value29% pricier than other cities
Median rent61% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Chester against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Montana only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Montana-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Chester near the bottom of Montana's cities
Among the 317 Montana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Chester ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Chester only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#178 of 282
37th percentile in Montana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 317
0th percentile in Montana
Median Home Value
#209 of 279
25th percentile in Montana
Poverty Rate
#87 of 315
72nd percentile in Montana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#119 of 317
62nd percentile in Montana
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Montana only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
25th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Chester's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$156,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 71% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Chester's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,294 of 15,516
More affordable than 59% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,371 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, Chester sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,294 of 15,516 and #5,371 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$53,583Chester, MT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Chester, MT median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Chester, MT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)46.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
704
Median Income
$53,583
Median Home Value
$156,900
Median Age
53.3
Poverty Rate
12.7%
Labor force participation
46.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.0%
Climate
Avg Temperature
41.3°F
Annual Precipitation
12.3"
Annual Snowfall
36.5"
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Chester's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
845 residents
2021
833 residents
2022
850 residents
2023
845 residents
2024
841 residents
2025
844 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
71.1%
Carpool
3.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
15.9%
Work from Home
5.2%
Other
4.4%
Based on 232 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Montana statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $175
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Montana at $175 (electricity about $80 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Montana statewide averages, not a meter reading for Chester. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Montana's BEA cost-of-living index is 94.6 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Chester is $1,336/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Montana statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 33.3 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Montana statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Chester sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Chester compares to similar-size Montana cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.