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Place dossier plate
SheetMT-ROY-MT · Roy, MT 133 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 Roy
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Roy on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Mount Erie · lowest
28,750
Mount Erie · lowest
28,750 median HH income
34.8% of the leader · rank #1
Roy · this city
50,000
Roy · this city
50,000 median HH income
60.6% of the leader · rank #2
Paint Rock · near
50,000
Paint Rock · near
50,000 median HH income
60.6% of the leader · rank #3
Woodville · near
50,000
Woodville · near
50,000 median HH income
60.6% of the leader · rank #4
Adak · near
50,000
Adak · near
50,000 median HH income
60.6% of the leader · rank #5
Calhan · near
50,000
Calhan · near
50,000 median HH income
60.6% of the leader · rank #6
North Washing… · highest
82,500
North Washing… · highest
82,500 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 Roy 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: 133.
Roy ranks in the 19th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
19th
percentile, household income
0th
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: Roy, MT
Roy is a small town in Montana, home to 133 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Roy report a median income of $50,000 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 11.9%. Typical homes in Roy are valued around $48,300, and the median resident age is 47.9 years. 13.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 63.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Roy's yearly average temperature at 45.4°F with 13.3 inches of precipitation per year and 36.3 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). 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. 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 Roy'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context 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 Roy, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Roy?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.9%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
Which cities make useful reference points for Roy?
Within Montana, the closest population matches are New Rockport Colony (133 residents); Gildford (132 residents, $48,897 income); Lavina (134 residents, $66,875 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Seba Dalkai, AZ (133 residents); Lexa, AR (133 residents); Elk River, ID (133 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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 45.4°F, with 13.3 inches of precipitation and 36.3 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.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 13.5% 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.
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 Roy?
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 72.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
10.0%
Drive alone
72.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 70 workers age 16+.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Montana average
F
City profile score · Roy, MT
34/100
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
11.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$50,000
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
13.5%
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).
Roy profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 66/100 (B-) · 94.6 index
Poverty rate: 32/100 (F) · 11.9%
Household income: 20/100 (F) · $50,000
Bachelor's+ share: 16/100 (F) · 13.5%
How does Roy compare to other US cities?
Where Roy sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income19% higher than other cities
Home value0% 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 Roy 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 Roy near the bottom of Montana's cities
Among the 317 Montana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Roy ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Roy 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
Median Home Value
#275 of 279
1st percentile in Montana
Poverty Rate
#92 of 315
70th percentile in Montana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#246 of 317
22nd 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.
How Roy's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$48,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 100% 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
Roy's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#34 of 15,516
More affordable than 100% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#34 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.0×, Roy sits in the affordable band:
national rank #34 of 15,516 and #34 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
$50,000Roy, MT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Roy, 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 Roy, MT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)13.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
133
Median Income
$50,000
Median Home Value
$48,300
Median Age
47.9
Poverty Rate
11.9%
Labor force participation
63.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
13.5%
Climate
Avg Temperature
45.4°F
Annual Precipitation
13.3"
Annual Snowfall
36.3"
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.9%
Carpool
7.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
10.0%
Work from Home
10.0%
Based on 70 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 Roy. 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 Roy 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 Roy sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Roy 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.