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Place dossier plate
SheetMT-EKALAKA-MT · Ekalaka, MT 366 pop · income 13th 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 Ekalaka
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ekalaka on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Eden · lowest
31,346
Eden · lowest
31,346 median HH income
19.1% of the leader · rank #1
Ekalaka · this city
45,417
Ekalaka · this city
45,417 median HH income
27.7% of the leader · rank #2
St. David · near
45,417
St. David · near
45,417 median HH income
27.7% of the leader · rank #3
Cutler · near
45,417
Cutler · near
45,417 median HH income
27.7% of the leader · rank #4
Allerton · near
45,417
Allerton · near
45,417 median HH income
27.7% of the leader · rank #5
Elkton · near
45,417
Elkton · near
45,417 median HH income
27.7% of the leader · rank #6
Zayante · highest
164,234
Zayante · highest
164,234 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 Ekalaka 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: 366.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Ekalaka lands in the 13th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
13th
percentile, household income
17th
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: Ekalaka, MT
Ekalaka is a small town in Montana, home to 366 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Ekalaka households earn a median of $45,417 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 15.7%. Typical homes in Ekalaka are valued around $118,300, and the median resident age is 62.6 years. Educational attainment runs 11.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 37.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 0 residential units authorized here in 2024 (No Permits). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 45.3°F with 18.1 inches of precipitation per year and 48.4 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Montana run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Montana scores 94.6 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,336 per month statewide. 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 Ekalaka'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 population change to work and mobility to climate and hazard context to within-city variation to schools and households to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ekalaka, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Population change
Is Ekalaka 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 -1 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.3% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Ekalaka?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 65.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ekalaka?
Within Montana, the closest population matches are Beaver Creek (365 residents, $95,813 income); Clyde Park (364 residents, $57,813 income); Rudyard (363 residents, $86,250 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Twin, AL (366 residents); Stinson Beach, CA (366 residents); Zayante, CA (366 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.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Ekalaka?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 45.3°F, with 18.1 inches of precipitation and 48.4 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.
Mean temperature
45.3°F
Annual precipitation
18.1 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
33.3
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 11.9% 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.
Matched public schools
3
Bachelor's degree+
11.9%
Poverty estimate
15.7%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Ekalaka?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.7%, 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
$45,417
Home value
$118,300
Value / income
2.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Montana average
F
City profile score · Ekalaka, MT
28/100
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.
Poverty rate F
15.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$45,417
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
11.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Ekalaka profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 66/100 (B-) · 94.6 index
Poverty rate: 21/100 (F) · 15.7%
Household income: 14/100 (F) · $45,417
Bachelor's+ share: 12/100 (F) · 11.9%
How does Ekalaka compare to other US cities?
Ekalaka measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income13% higher than other cities
Home value17% 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 Ekalaka 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 Ekalaka near the bottom of Montana's cities
Among the 317 Montana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ekalaka ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ekalaka only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#224 of 282
21st percentile in Montana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 317
0th percentile in Montana
Median Home Value
#240 of 279
14th percentile in Montana
Poverty Rate
#70 of 315
78th percentile in Montana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#261 of 317
17th 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
13th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Ekalaka's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$118,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 83% 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
Ekalaka's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,532 of 15,516
More affordable than 71% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,032 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.6×, Ekalaka sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,532 of 15,516 and #4,032 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
$45,417Ekalaka, MT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ekalaka, 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 Ekalaka, MT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)11.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)37.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
366
Median Income
$45,417
Median Home Value
$118,300
Median Age
62.6
Poverty Rate
15.7%
Labor force participation
37.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
11.9%
Climate
Avg Temperature
45.3°F
Annual Precipitation
18.1"
Annual Snowfall
48.4"
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
Ekalaka's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
399 residents
2021
406 residents
2022
402 residents
2023
404 residents
2024
408 residents
2025
398 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
5
5
0
$0.3M
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
1
1
0
$0.4M
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
65.9%
Carpool
4.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
11.9%
Work from Home
17.5%
Based on 126 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 Ekalaka. 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 Ekalaka 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 Ekalaka sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ekalaka 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 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.