2025: These Are Now Montana's Top 5 Largest Cities

It's no secret that Montana's towns have grown in population quite a bit in the last few years. Montana's top 5 largest cities have changed order, and our growth is significantly faster than the national average.

NOTE: The data that is cited here is from the U.S. Census Bureau, last officially taken in 2020. There are other state resources that help keep track of individual Montana city growth as well.

Butte - Nathan Purdy VIMEO

Butte, Montana once had a population of about 100,000 back in 1917 due to the incredibly important copper mining industry. Less labor intensive methods of mining, such as 'open pit mining', took over in 1957 with the opening of the Berkeley Pit.

Before naming the top 5 largest Montana cities, it's helpful to take a look at Montana's population growth overall. (Census counts generally begin in April of designated years.)

1920: The population was around 548,889
1960: The population was around 674,767
1970: The population was around 694,409
1980: The population was around 786,690
1990: The population was around 799,065
2000: The population was around 902,195
2010: The population was around 990,730
2022: The population was around 1,122,867
2023: The population was around 1,130,000

Even with significant population growth in Montana's most popular cities and towns, it took us a long time to reach 1 million residents.

MORE: Bozeman's Most Popular New Restaurant

Surprisingly, Montana isn't anywhere near the top of the list for "Fastest Growing States of 2025", according to the World Population Review. (It sure feels like it, though.)

Photo by Steven Cordes on Unsplash

2020-2023: Montana's population grew by 45,601 (4.19%) between 2020 and 2023, a rate significantly higher than the national growth rate of 1.02% during the same time.

FYI: The next official census (which will be the 25th population U.S. population count), is going to happen in 2030. It's called a decennial census, and it occurs every 10 years. That population count is mandated by the U.S. Constitution.

Population growth in U.S. metro areas as a whole was faster between 2023 and 2024 than in the previous year and outpaced that of the nation. (U.S. Census Bureau)

City of Bozeman

So, here are Montana's largest cities by population. These numbers are for the cities' metro areas and do not include full county populations:

#5 - Butte, Montana: with a population of 35,701 (Fun Fact: Town Pump started in Butte in 1953 with it's first full service gas station.)
#4 - Bozeman, Montana: with a population of 57,305
#3 - Great Falls, Montana: with a population of 60,422
#2 - Missoula, Montana: with a population of 77,757
#1 - Billings, Montana: with a population of 120,864

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