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Place dossier plate
SheetMT-LODGE-GRASS-MT · Lodge Grass, MT 499 pop · income 19th 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 Lodge Grass
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lodge Grass on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Heart Butte · lowest
28,977
Heart Butte · lowest
28,977 median HH income
22.5% of the leader · rank #1
Lodge Grass · this city
50,000
Lodge Grass · this city
50,000 median HH income
38.8% of the leader · rank #2
Paint Rock · near
50,000
Paint Rock · near
50,000 median HH income
38.8% of the leader · rank #3
Woodville · near
50,000
Woodville · near
50,000 median HH income
38.8% of the leader · rank #4
Adak · near
50,000
Adak · near
50,000 median HH income
38.8% of the leader · rank #5
Calhan · near
50,000
Calhan · near
50,000 median HH income
38.8% of the leader · rank #6
Turah · highest
128,750
Turah · highest
128,750 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 Lodge Grass 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: 499.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Lodge Grass lands in the 19th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
19th
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: Lodge Grass, MT
499 people live in Lodge Grass, Montana - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Lodge Grass households earn a median of $50,000 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 21.4%. The median resident age is 26.9 years. 6.9% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 46.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 0 residential units were authorized in 2024 (No Permits).
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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Montana's average monthly utility costs around $175 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 33.3 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Lodge Grass'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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lodge Grass, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for 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
Which cities make useful reference points for Lodge Grass?
Within Montana, the closest population matches are Brockton (497 residents); Carlton (497 residents, $81,648 income); Heart Butte (504 residents, $28,977 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Delhi, IA (499 residents); Cawood, KY (499 residents); Cecilia, KY (499 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.
What does the education layer cover for Lodge Grass?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 6.9% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Lodge Grass?
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 64.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Is Lodge Grass growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -15 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.4% 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.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Montana average
F
City profile score · Lodge Grass, MT
26/100
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.
Household income F
$50,000
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
21.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
6.9%
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).
Lodge Grass profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 66/100 (B-) · 94.6 index
Household income: 20/100 (F) · $50,000
Poverty rate: 11/100 (F) · 21.4%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 6.9%
How does Lodge Grass compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lodge Grass stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income19% 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 Lodge Grass 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 Lodge Grass near the bottom of Montana's cities
Among the 317 Montana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lodge Grass ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lodge Grass only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#197 of 282
30th percentile in Montana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 317
0th percentile in Montana
Poverty Rate
#52 of 315
83rd percentile in Montana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#286 of 317
10th 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
19th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$50,000Lodge Grass, MT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lodge Grass, 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 Lodge Grass, MT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)6.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)21.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)46.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
499
Median Income
$50,000
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
26.9
Poverty Rate
21.4%
Labor force participation
46.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
6.9%
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
Lodge Grass's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
437 residents
2021
431 residents
2022
430 residents
2023
430 residents
2024
429 residents
2025
422 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
64.7%
Carpool
19.0%
Public Transit
3.3%
Walk
4.6%
Work from Home
8.5%
Based on 153 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 Lodge Grass. 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 Lodge Grass 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 Lodge Grass sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lodge Grass 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, 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.