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Place dossier plate
SheetMT-HELENA-MT · Helena, MT 33,126 pop · income 49th pct · 3 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 Helena
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Helena on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Chester · lowest
39,809
Chester · lowest
39,809 median HH income
27.9% of the leader · rank #1
Malden · near
69,327
Malden · near
69,327 median HH income
48.6% of the leader · rank #2
Helena · this city
69,341
Helena · this city
69,341 median HH income
48.6% of the leader · rank #3
Dames Quarter · near
69,342
Dames Quarter · near
69,342 median HH income
48.6% of the leader · rank #4
Glencoe · near
69,348
Glencoe · near
69,348 median HH income
48.6% of the leader · rank #5
Bowling Green · near
69,352
Bowling Green · near
69,352 median HH income
48.6% of the leader · rank #6
Franklin · highest
142,788
Franklin · highest
142,788 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Helena 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: 33,126.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Helena - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Helena places in the 49th percentile for household income and the 15th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
49th
percentile, household income
73rd
percentile, home value
61st
percentile, median rent
15th
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: Helena, MT
Montana's Helena is a small city, with 33,126 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Helena report a median income of $69,341 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 4.2%. Typical homes in Helena are valued around $355,100, and the median resident age is 40.4 years. About 50.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 59.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 389 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 91% from five years earlier. Helena's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 3096.1 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 45.5°F with 11.4 inches of precipitation per year and 37.2 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. Monthly utility costs average around $175 across Montana, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 11.6 minutes, with 65.4% driving alone and 15.0% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 33.3 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Helena'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 climate and hazard context to schools and households to within-city variation to housing and income to population change to comparison shortlist to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Helena, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Helena?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 65.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 11.6 minutes.
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.
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 45.5°F, with 11.4 inches of precipitation and 37.2 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.
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 Helena?
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.
Within Montana, the closest population matches are Butte-Silver Bow (34,929 residents, $57,633 income); Kalispell (26,830 residents, $61,590 income); Belgrade (11,425 residents, $88,896 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are West Little River, FL (33,147 residents); Salisbury, MD (33,080 residents); Dover, NH (33,070 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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Helena?
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.
The NCES join finds 15 public schools within the city match. 50.4% 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.
Poverty estimate
4.2%
Bachelor's degree+
50.4%
Matched public schools
15
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Helena?
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 home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
5.1×
Home value
$355,100
Household income
$69,341
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2,886 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +8.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 389 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
2020 estimate
32,252
2025 estimate
35,138
Period change
+8.9%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Helena?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3096.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 36% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
3096.1
Violent rate
513.7
Property rate
2582.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 4.2% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
94.6 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Montana average
C
City profile score · Helena, MT
55/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A-
50.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B
4.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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 D
$69,341
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
514 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Helena profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 84/100 (A-) · 50.4%
Poverty rate: 71/100 (B) · 4.2%
Cost of living: 66/100 (B-) · 94.6 index
Household income: 48/100 (D) · $69,341
Violent crime: 15/100 (F) · 514 /100k
Where Helena sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Helena'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 - Helena highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Helena, MT (this city): home $355,100, crime 3,096/100k
Salisbury, MD : home $217,500, crime 3,960/100k
Dover, NH : home $398,500, crime 834/100k
Bethel Park, PA : home $258,700, crime 690/100k
Franklin, MA : home $567,100, crime 383/100k
Chester, PA : home $85,400, crime 2,819/100k
Kalispell, MT : home $381,400, crime 2,519/100k
Belgrade, MT : home $469,600, crime 1,494/100k
Bozeman, MT : home $614,900, crime 2,189/100k
How does Helena compare to other US cities?
Helena measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income49% higher than other cities
Home value73% pricier than other cities
Median rent61% pricier than other cities
Safety15% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Montana alone, Helena ranks #31 of 39 Montana cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Helena 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 Helena near the bottom of Montana's cities
Among the 317 Montana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Helena ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Helena only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#103 of 282
63rd percentile in Montana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 317
0th percentile in Montana
Median Home Value
#75 of 279
73rd percentile in Montana
Poverty Rate
#195 of 315
38th percentile in Montana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#24 of 317
92nd 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
49th percentile nationally for median household income · 15th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Helena's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Helena'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 Helena's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$355,10027th percentilemore affordable than 27% 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
Helena's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,092 of 15,516
More affordable than 16% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,678 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.1×, Helena sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,092 of 15,516 and #2,678 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$69,341Helena, MT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Helena, 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 Helena, MT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)50.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
33,126
Median Income
$69,341
Median Home Value
$355,100
Median Age
40.4
Poverty Rate
4.2%
Labor force participation
59.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
50.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3096.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
513.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2582.4
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
45.5°F
Annual Precipitation
11.4"
Annual Snowfall
37.2"
Schools
Total Schools
15
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Helena's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
32,252 residents
2021
33,080 residents
2022
33,809 residents
2023
34,336 residents
2024
34,686 residents
2025
35,138 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
389
housing units authorized
Single-Family
44
detached homes
Multifamily
345
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
11.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
204
48
156
$34.2M
2020
249
43
206
$44.1M
2021
211
53
158
$42.8M
2022
91
53
38
$26.6M
2023
259
48
211
$57.3M
2024
389
44
345
$65.9M
Permit volume increased 91% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
11.6 minutes
Drive Alone
65.4%
Carpool
8.5%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
8.3%
Work from Home
15.0%
Other
2.5%
Based on 16,420 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 Helena. 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 Helena 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 Helena sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Helena 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.