Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetMT-COLSTRIP-MT · Colstrip, MT 2,156 pop · income 67th pct · 4 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 Colstrip
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Colstrip on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jamestown · lowest
24,688
Jamestown · lowest
24,688 median HH income
28.7% of the leader · rank #1
Colstrip · this city
86,000
Colstrip · this city
86,000 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #2
Viola · highest
86,000
Viola · highest
86,000 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #3
Martinton · near
86,000
Martinton · near
86,000 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #4
Bemus Point · near
86,000
Bemus Point · near
86,000 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Montrose · near
86,000
Montrose · near
86,000 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Colstrip on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 2,156.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Colstrip - the verdict
Colstrip ranks in the 67th percentile for household income and the 98th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
67th
percentile, household income
41st
percentile, home value
61st
percentile, median rent
98th
percentile, safety
📝 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: Colstrip, MT
Montana's Colstrip is a small town, with 2,156 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Colstrip brings in $86,000 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.0%. Colstrip's housing stock carries a median value of $193,700, and the median resident age is 43.5 years. Educational attainment runs 25.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 64.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 0 residential building permits were authorized in Colstrip (No Permits), per Census BPS data. Colstrip reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 97.8 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Colstrip's yearly average temperature at 46.1°F with 16.4 inches of precipitation per year and 36.6 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Montana run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Montana at 94.6 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,336 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Montana's average monthly utility costs around $175 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 33.3 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Colstrip'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to work and mobility to within-city variation to reported crime to housing and income to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Colstrip, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Colstrip?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 25.2% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Colstrip?
Within Montana, the closest population matches are Manhattan (2,149 residents, $69,671 income); Stevensville (2,172 residents, $52,745 income); Crow Agency (2,110 residents, $49,333 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Jamestown, TN (2,156 residents); Hooverson Heights, WV (2,156 residents); Yale, MI (2,157 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 46.1°F, with 16.4 inches of precipitation and 36.6 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Colstrip?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 92.2%. 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
0.0%
Drive alone
92.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,053 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Colstrip?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 97.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 96% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
97.8
Violent rate
0.0
Total reported rate
97.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in Colstrip?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.0%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
Household income
$86,000
Home value
$193,700
Value / income
2.3×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Colstrip growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 -4 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-0.2%
2025 estimate
2,091
2020 estimate
2,095
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 9.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Montana average
B-
City profile score · Colstrip, MT
65/100
5 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.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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.
Household income B-
$86,000
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share D
25.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
9.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Colstrip profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Cost of living: 66/100 (B-) · 94.6 index
Household income: 65/100 (B-) · $86,000
Bachelor's+ share: 49/100 (D) · 25.2%
Poverty rate: 44/100 (D) · 9.0%
Where Colstrip sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Colstrip's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Colstrip highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Colstrip, MT (this city): home $193,700, crime 98/100k
Jamestown, TN : home $96,000, crime 4,151/100k
Yale, MI : home $112,100, crime 1,059/100k
Bristol, NH : home $192,900, crime 2,280/100k
Manhattan, MT : home $460,400, crime 993/100k
Stevensville, MT : home $336,500, crime 790/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Colstrip compare to other US cities?
Here's how Colstrip stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income67% higher than other cities
Home value41% pricier than other cities
Median rent61% pricier than other cities
Safety98% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Montana, Colstrip ranks #1 of 39 Montana cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Colstrip 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 Colstrip near the bottom of Montana's cities
Among the 317 Montana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Colstrip ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Colstrip only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#48 of 282
83rd percentile in Montana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 317
0th percentile in Montana
Median Home Value
#174 of 279
38th percentile in Montana
Poverty Rate
#128 of 315
58th percentile in Montana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#134 of 317
57th 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
67th percentile nationally for median household income · 98th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Colstrip's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Colstrip's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Colstrip's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$193,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 59% 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
Colstrip's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,716 of 15,516
More affordable than 82% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,523 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.3×, Colstrip sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,716 of 15,516 and #2,523 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
$86,000Colstrip, MT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Colstrip, 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 Colstrip, MT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)25.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,156
Median Income
$86,000
Median Home Value
$193,700
Median Age
43.5
Poverty Rate
9.0%
Labor force participation
64.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
25.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
97.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
97.8
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
46.1°F
Annual Precipitation
16.4"
Annual Snowfall
36.6"
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Colstrip's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,095 residents
2021
2,038 residents
2022
2,049 residents
2023
2,051 residents
2024
2,080 residents
2025
2,091 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
92.2%
Carpool
5.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.4%
Work from Home
0.0%
Other
0.8%
Based on 1,053 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 Colstrip. 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 Colstrip 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 Colstrip sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Colstrip 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, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, 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.