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Place dossier plate
SheetMT-STARR-SCHOOL-MT · Starr School, MT 227 pop
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.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Starr School 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: 227.
227 people call Starr School, Montana home. Source: Census ACS.
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: Starr School, MT
Starr School is a small town in Montana, home to 227 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The median resident age is 28.3 years. Educational attainment runs 19.7% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 48.3% 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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,336 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $175 across Montana, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Starr School'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 work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Starr School, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Starr School?
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 McAllister (226 residents, $46,594 income); Swan Lake (226 residents, $78,125 income); Augusta (222 residents, $43,333 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Dragoon, AZ (227 residents); Lonsdale, AR (227 residents); Montgomery Creek, CA (227 residents). These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
What does the journey to work look like in Starr School?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 42.9%. 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.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Montana average
F
City profile score · Starr School, MT
33/100
3 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
19.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
44.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income N/A
N/A
No ACS median household income on file for this place.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Starr School profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 66/100 (B-) · 94.6 index
Bachelor's+ share: 33/100 (F) · 19.7%
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 44.1%
How does Starr School compare to other US cities?
Here's how Starr School stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
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 Starr School 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 Starr School near the bottom of Montana's cities
Among the 317 Montana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Starr School ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Starr School only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 317
0th percentile in Montana
Poverty Rate
#14 of 315
96th percentile in Montana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#184 of 317
42nd 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.
Income distribution context
Median household income is not available for Starr School in the current Census ACS release (common for very small places).
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)19.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)44.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)48.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
227
Median Income
N/A
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
28.3
Poverty Rate
44.1%
Labor force participation
48.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
19.7%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
42.9%
Carpool
24.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
32.7%
Based on 49 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 Starr School. 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 Starr School 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 Starr School sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Starr School 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.