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Place dossier plate
SheetMT-ULM-MT · Ulm, MT 868 pop · income 80th 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 Ulm
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ulm on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Rocky Fork Po… · lowest
35,234
Rocky Fork Po… · lowest
35,234 median HH income
28.2% of the leader · rank #1
Ulm · this city
103,750
Ulm · this city
103,750 median HH income
83.1% of the leader · rank #2
Grantfork · near
103,750
Grantfork · near
103,750 median HH income
83.1% of the leader · rank #3
Donahue · near
103,750
Donahue · near
103,750 median HH income
83.1% of the leader · rank #4
Alexandria · near
103,750
Alexandria · near
103,750 median HH income
83.1% of the leader · rank #5
Farley · near
103,750
Farley · near
103,750 median HH income
83.1% of the leader · rank #6
Holiday Lakes · highest
124,853
Holiday Lakes · highest
124,853 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 Ulm 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: 868.
Nationally, Ulm sits in the 80th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
80th
percentile, household income
69th
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: Ulm, MT
Ulm is a small town in Montana, home to 868 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $103,750 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 5.7%. Typical homes in Ulm are valued around $331,100, and the median resident age is 39.3 years. Educational attainment runs 34.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 62.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 3 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Living costs in Montana run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Montana scores 94.6 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,336 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Montana run around $175, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Ulm'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 to schools and households to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ulm, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Ulm?
Within Montana, the closest population matches are Lincoln (868 residents, $45,912 income); Harlem (879 residents, $74,545 income); Havre North (880 residents, $36,695 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Clarkfield, MN (868 residents); Ringoes, NJ (868 residents); Holiday Lakes, OH (868 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.
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 75.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 34.9% 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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.7%, 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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Montana average
B-
City profile score · Ulm, MT
69/100
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.
Household income B+
$103,750
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B-
34.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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 C+
5.7%
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).
Ulm profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 79/100 (B+) · $103,750
Bachelor's+ share: 66/100 (B-) · 34.9%
Cost of living: 66/100 (B-) · 94.6 index
Poverty rate: 61/100 (C+) · 5.7%
How does Ulm compare to other US cities?
Here's how Ulm stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income80% higher than other cities
Home value69% 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 Ulm 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 Ulm near the bottom of Montana's cities
Among the 317 Montana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ulm ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ulm only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#20 of 282
93rd percentile in Montana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 317
0th percentile in Montana
Median Home Value
#85 of 279
70th percentile in Montana
Poverty Rate
#167 of 315
46th percentile in Montana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#64 of 317
79th 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
80th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Ulm's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$331,10031st percentilemore affordable than 31% 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
Ulm's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,649 of 15,516
More affordable than 51% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,329 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.2×, Ulm sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,649 of 15,516 and #6,329 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$103,750Ulm, MT median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ulm, 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 Ulm, MT.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)34.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
868
Median Income
$103,750
Median Home Value
$331,100
Median Age
39.3
Poverty Rate
5.7%
Labor force participation
62.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
34.9%
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
75.1%
Carpool
3.2%
Public Transit
12.5%
Walk
3.2%
Work from Home
6.1%
Based on 409 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 Ulm. 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 Ulm 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 Ulm sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ulm 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.