Montana’s Fastest-Shrinking Cities Revealed by New Data

For those living in Montana over the past few years, it may seem like there has been an explosion in the population. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Montana became an attractive destination for relocation.

It’s hard to believe that it was already six years ago. Since then, Montana has continued to attract people to move here. It doesn’t help that Montana communities continue to rank among the best places to live.

Not everywhere in Montana is the population increasing. Some areas are losing their population faster than others.

Travel A Lot, using U.S. Census data, has determined the fastest shrinking cities in every state. Travel A Lot used urban areas classified in each state as cities for their rankings.

via GIPHY

Which Montana Cities Are Losing Population?

According to the numbers, Montana’s fastest-shrinking city is Sidney. While most of the state was growing between 2020 and 2021, Sidney saw a 2.1% population decline.

According to World Population Review, using numbers from 2020 to 2025, West Yellowstone has lost the most residents, with an overall loss of 1.61% of its population. Sidney’s population loss has slowed a bit. It has lost 1.4% of its population over the same time period, and is still one of the top places for population loss in Montana.

The next U.S. census is planned for 2030. It will be interesting to see how much the population of Montana will change until then. In the mean time, the more Montana gets noticed the more people will be moving here.