Hamilton Beats Missoula in Study of Montana’s Most Business Friendly Cities

In a recently released study, the Montana Policy Institute set out to answer the question "how business friendly are Montana's 25 largest cities?" By looking at a variety of factors such as recent job growth, cost of living, property tax rates and population growth, the study gave each city an aggregate score which can be broken out into three categories; economic vitality, business tax burden, and community allure.

As can be seen in the final list that follows this post, Missoula ranked 22nd overall. Nearby Hamilton, on the other hand, came out in 16th place. By digging into the specifics of the study it's easy to see why Hamilton was able to come out on top of Missoula despite having a much smaller population and a low economic vitality score. The answer is property taxes. Missoula has the third highest taxes of all the cities in Montana, while Hamilton has the 5th lowest.

Complete Business Friendly Cities Study

Business Friendly Cities Final Rankings

1. Polson

2. Sidney

3. Glasgow

4. Bozeman

5. Belgrade

6. Dillon

7. Billings

8. Lewistown

9. Livingston

10. Great falls