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Place dossier plate
SheetMT-ELLISTON-MT · Elliston, MT 208 pop · income 9th pct
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 Elliston
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Elliston on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Riverview Col… · lowest
2,499
Riverview Col… · lowest
2,499 median HH income
2.5% of the leader · rank #1
Ayden · near
41,711
Ayden · near
41,711 median HH income
40.9% of the leader · rank #2
Elliston · this city
41,719
Elliston · this city
41,719 median HH income
41.0% of the leader · rank #3
Washington · near
41,723
Washington · near
41,723 median HH income
41.0% of the leader · rank #4
Greenville · near
41,724
Greenville · near
41,724 median HH income
41.0% of the leader · rank #5
Alva · near
41,728
Alva · near
41,728 median HH income
41.0% of the leader · rank #6
Valley Home · highest
101,875
Valley Home · highest
101,875 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 Elliston 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: 208.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Elliston places in the 9th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
9th
percentile, household income
55th
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: Elliston, MT
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 208 residents in Elliston, a small town within Montana. Households in Elliston report a median income of $41,719 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 8.3%. Elliston's housing stock carries a median value of $248,300, and the median resident age is 34.5 years. 23.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 70.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Elliston's yearly average temperature at 40.3°F with 19.1 inches of precipitation per year.
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. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Montana run around $175, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Elliston'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 climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Elliston, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Elliston?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 40.3°F, with 19.1 inches of precipitation. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Elliston?
Within Montana, the closest population matches are Highwood (209 residents, $71,875 income); St. Mary (209 residents); West Glacier (209 residents, $87,344 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Onycha, AL (208 residents); Nanwalek, AK (208 residents); Tetlin, AK (208 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Elliston?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.3%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 23.3% 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 matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
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 Elliston?
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 79.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
3.4%
Work from home
6.0%
Drive alone
79.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 117 workers age 16+.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 8.3% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Montana average
F
City profile score · Elliston, MT
39/100
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 D
8.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
23.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$41,719
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).
Elliston profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 66/100 (B-) · 94.6 index
Poverty rate: 46/100 (D) · 8.3%
Bachelor's+ share: 44/100 (D) · 23.3%
Household income: 9/100 (F) · $41,719
How does Elliston compare to other US cities?
Here's how Elliston stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income9% higher than other cities
Home value55% 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 Elliston 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 Elliston near the bottom of Montana's cities
Among the 317 Montana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Elliston ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Elliston only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#240 of 282
15th percentile in Montana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 317
0th percentile in Montana
Median Home Value
#123 of 279
56th percentile in Montana
Poverty Rate
#138 of 315
56th percentile in Montana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#148 of 317
53rd 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
9th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Elliston's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$248,30045th percentilemore affordable than 45% 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
Elliston's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,063 of 15,516
More affordable than 9% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,439 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 6.0×, Elliston sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,063 of 15,516 and #10,439 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$41,719Elliston, MT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Elliston, 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 Elliston, MT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)23.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)70.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
208
Median Income
$41,719
Median Home Value
$248,300
Median Age
34.5
Poverty Rate
8.3%
Labor force participation
70.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
23.3%
Climate
Avg Temperature
40.3°F
Annual Precipitation
19.1"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.5%
Carpool
11.1%
Public Transit
3.4%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
6.0%
Based on 117 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 Elliston. 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 Elliston 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 Elliston sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Elliston 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.