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Place dossier plate
SheetMT-FOREST-HILL-MT · Forest Hill, MT 234 pop · income 2nd 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 Forest Hill
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Forest Hill on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Metompkin · lowest
25,527
Metompkin · lowest
25,527 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #1
Forest Hill · this city
25,579
Forest Hill · this city
25,579 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #2
Parkin · near
25,588
Parkin · near
25,588 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #3
Jamestown · near
25,602
Jamestown · near
25,602 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #4
Coffey · near
25,625
Coffey · near
25,625 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #5
Elizabethtown · near
25,625
Elizabethtown · near
25,625 median HH income
29.4% of the leader · rank #6
Savage · highest
87,083
Savage · highest
87,083 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 Forest Hill 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: 234.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Forest Hill lands in the 2nd percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
2nd
percentile, household income
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: Forest Hill, MT
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 234 residents in Forest Hill, a small town within Montana. The typical household in Forest Hill brings in $25,579 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 33.3%. The median resident age is 35.0 years. About 20.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 73.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,336 per month. 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 Forest Hill'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Forest Hill, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Forest Hill?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 51.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Forest Hill?
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.
Within Montana, the closest population matches are Lima (237 residents, $53,906 income); Belfry (240 residents, $45,625 income); Starr School (227 residents). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lower Kalskag, AK (234 residents); Garner, AR (234 residents); Manchester, CA (234 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.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 33.3% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Montana average
F
City profile score · Forest Hill, MT
23/100
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 F
20.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$25,579
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
33.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Forest Hill profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 66/100 (B-) · 94.6 index
Bachelor's+ share: 35/100 (F) · 20.3%
Household income: 0/100 (F) · $25,579
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 33.3%
How does Forest Hill compare to other US cities?
Where Forest Hill sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income2% higher 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 Forest Hill 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 Forest Hill near the bottom of Montana's cities
Among the 317 Montana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Forest Hill ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Forest Hill only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#275 of 282
2nd percentile in Montana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 317
0th percentile in Montana
Poverty Rate
#30 of 315
90th percentile in Montana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#177 of 317
44th 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
2nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$25,579Forest Hill, MT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Forest Hill, 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 Forest Hill, MT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)33.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)73.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
234
Median Income
$25,579
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
35.0
Poverty Rate
33.3%
Labor force participation
73.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.3%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
51.5%
Carpool
23.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
24.8%
Based on 101 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 Forest Hill. 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 Forest Hill 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 Forest Hill sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Forest Hill 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, 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.