Montana Has More Billionaires Than These Neighboring States

This week's stock market drop has had many people watching the news about some of our country's wealthiest people. A headline in Fortune read "World's Billionaires See $134 Billion Wiped from Their Fortunes Overnight in Stock Bloodbath" succinctly demonstrating the drop's global impact.

Last fall, three Montanans were highlighted in Forbes' "400 Richest People in America" list: Denny Washington, Austen Cargill II, and Marianne Libemann. However, Montana has four billionaires. As of 2023, Washington's net worth was $7B, and Cargill and Liebmann's were each $5B. While she didn't make the Fobes list, Linda Pritzker, author, and co-founder of the Namchak Foundation, is part of the family that owns Hyatt Hotels and she has a net worth of $2B.

For a population of approximately 1 million people, having four billionaires in Montana doesn't seem like a lot. But you might be surprised to find that several of Montana's neighbors don't have as many billionaires as Montana does. But first, let's look at a few states that do.

The States That Have More Billionaires Than Montana

We looked at the list of billionaires in every state from the cheapism blog. In our region and across the western half of the United States, there are several states with more than four billionaires. And you can probably guess a few of them:

Arizona - 11
Colorado - 12
Utah - 6
Washington - 13
Wyoming - 6

The States That Have Fewer Billionaires Than Montana

But there are a few states that have surprisingly fewer billionaires than Montana. Idaho and Oregon in particular.

Alaska - 0
Idaho - 1
North Dakota - 0
Oregon - 3
South Dakota - 1

Cheapism suggested that because of the recent influx of residents to Montana, we may see more billionaires here in the future. But after learning that new data shows Montana is at the bottom of the list for places where people are moving, that might be less likely.