
Montana Has one of the “Best Performing” Small-Cities in the Nation
Running a city can't be an easy job. It is an impossible task to please everyone these days. It seems like more and more people are divided. The most that we can hope for is our city council members and our mayors are trying their best. We can hope they are making decisions to help make our towns better places for everyone.
Montana doesn't have any cities that are considered "major cities", we don't have the population. Even Billings, our biggest city with a population of over 122,000, is considered a "small city" compared to cities across the country.
Looking at the data, there are some cities in Montana that may be performing better than others. There is one city in particular that is one of the best-performing small cities when it comes to economic growth. The Milken Institute has released their latest report of the "best performing" cities for 2025 and making the top ten best small cities is Missoula, Montana.
Missoula is ranked at number nine on the list this year, a jump of nine spots over last year when it ranked number eighteen. Cities in the top fifteen are considered "Tier 1" cities in the rankings. Two other Montana cities made the overall list of the top-200-performing cities. Billings is a "Tier 2" city coming in at twenty seven and Great Falls made the list at 124 making them a "Tier 3" city.
The rankings are based on job and wage growth, in fields like high tech. Missoula ranks among the bottom of the list in two categories, housing affordability (179) and income inequality (164). Despite the low scores, Missoula scored very high on "community resilience". Which means they can overcome obstacles, like the shortage of affordable housing.
The Milken Institute describes itself in part as:
A non-profit, non-partisan think tank focused on accelerating measurable progress on the path to a meaningful life
The overall top-performing small city is Gainesville, Georgia. Two Idaho towns made the top ten, Idaho Falls (3) and Coeur d' Alene (7) both made the list.
Many small towns on the list also struggle with a lack of affordable housing. If Missoula could improve the affordable housing issues, there is a good chance they will score even higher on the list next year.
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Gallery Credit: Stacker
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