State crime profile · 2024
Montana Crime Rates: Safest & Most Dangerous Cities
Crime data for 44 cities and 56 of 56 counties in Montana (MT), ranked safest to most dangerous from 114 reporting agencies.
Data updated 2026-08-24
- 426.4
- Violent / 100K
- 1,645.6
- Property / 100K
- 44
- Cities
- 56
- Counties
Montana violent crime is 426.4 per 100,000, 21% above the U.S. average
According to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program for 2024, Montana records 426.4 violent crimes per 100,000 residents, 21% above the national average (about the 38th-safest of 51 states and D.C.). Statewide averages hide city and county variation; UCR participation is voluntary.
- 426.4 violent crimes per 100K
- +21% vs. the U.S. average
- 38th safest of 51 states & DC
- 1,645.6 property crimes per 100K
How safe is Montana? FBI UCR data snapshot
Montana (MT) reported 4,849 violent crimes and 18,714 property crimes in 2024, based on FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program submissions from 114 law enforcement agencies. That translates to a statewide violent crime rate of 426.4 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 1645.6 per 100,000 against a reporting population of 1,137,233. The PlainCrime dataset indexes 44 Montana cities and 56 counties, each with their own detail pages and local crime figures drawn from FBI UCR Tables 8 and 10.
The FBI's state-level summary reports violent and property crime as aggregate totals rather than broken out by individual offense type (murder, rape, robbery, assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, arson). For an offense-by-offense breakdown, see the individual city and county pages for Montana below, which draw on FBI UCR Tables 8 and 10 and do report each offense type separately.
Across 11 years of state-level UCR history (2014–2024), the violent crime rate moved from 316.5 to 426.4 per 100,000, a rise of 34.7%. City-level detail pages within Montana include safety grades (A+ to F), benchmarks against national averages, per-capita risk estimates, and multi-year trend tables for users comparing specific jurisdictions. All figures above are drawn from FBI UCR 2024 submissions; reporting completeness varies by agency, and the FBI periodically restates prior-year figures as late submissions arrive.
How Montana ranks nationally
Montana vs. every U.S. state
Violent crime per 100,000 residents, FBI UCR 2024. Lower is safer.
426 25th percentile among 51 U.S. states
Each bar is a band of values; taller bars hold more U.S. states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program · 2024
Safest cities · Most dangerous cities · Crime trends
Crime Trends
| Year | Population | Violent Crime | Rate | Property Crime | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 1,137,233 | 4,849 | 426.4 | 18,714 | 1645.6 |
| 2023 | 1,132,812 | 5,076 | 448.1 | 20,964 | 1850.6 |
| 2022 | 1,122,867 | 4,821 | 429.3 | 22,084 | 1966.8 |
| 2021 | 1,105,574 | 5,234 | 473.4 | 22,537 | 2038.5 |
| 2020 | 1,080,577 | 5,250 | 485.9 | 23,469 | 2171.9 |
| 2019 | 1,068,778 | 4,486 | 419.7 | 23,961 | 2241.9 |
| 2018 | 1,062,305 | 4,044 | 380.7 | 26,728 | 2516 |
| 2017 | 1,050,493 | 3,997 | 380.5 | 27,482 | 2616.1 |
| 2016 | 1,042,520 | 3,873 | 371.5 | 28,247 | 2709.5 |
| 2015 | 1,032,949 | 3,582 | 346.8 | 27,117 | 2625.2 |
| 2014 | 1,023,579 | 3,240 | 316.5 | 25,171 | 2459.1 |
Cities in Montana
Safest cities in Montana
Cities with 25,000+ residents, lowest violent crime per 100,000, FBI UCR 2024. Hover a bar for the exact rate.
- Kalispell 293
Kalispell
293 /100K
- Bozeman
Bozeman
434 /100K
- Helena
Helena
514 /100K
- Great Falls
Great Falls
574 /100K
- Missoula
Missoula
597 /100K
- Billings
Billings
746 /100K
What this shows Kalispell is the safest sizeable city in Montana, at 292.9 violent crimes per 100,000.
Highest violent-crime cities in Montana
Cities with 25,000+ residents, highest violent crime per 100,000, FBI UCR 2024. Hover a bar for the exact rate.
- Billings
Billings
746 /100K
- Missoula
Missoula
597 /100K
- Great Falls
Great Falls
574 /100K
- Helena
Helena
514 /100K
- Bozeman
Bozeman
434 /100K
- Kalispell 293
Kalispell
293 /100K
What this shows Billings reports the highest big-city violent-crime rate in Montana, at 746.1 per 100,000.
Billings is both volume #1 and rate #1 among 6 Montana cities with 25,000+ residents in FBI UCR 2024. That non-invert is disclosed, not hidden.
| City | Population | Violent / 100K | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Billings | 122,105 | 746.1 | F |
| Missoula | 78,911 | 596.9 | F |
| Great Falls | 60,414 | 574.4 | F |
| Bozeman | 58,509 | 434.1 | C |
| Helena | 35,238 | 513.7 | D |
| Kalispell | 31,754 | 292.9 | C |
| Belgrade | 13,184 | 341.3 | C |
| Whitefish | 9,648 | 124.4 | A |
| Havre | 9,328 | 578.9 | F |
| Livingston | 9,057 | 596.2 | D |
| Miles City | 8,464 | 307.2 | B |
| Laurel | 7,185 | 542.8 | F |
| Lewistown | 6,210 | 644.1 | D |
| Sidney | 6,031 | 464.3 | C |
| Columbia Falls | 5,838 | 274.1 | C |
| Polson | 5,770 | 987.9 | F |
| Hamilton | 5,463 | 329.5 | C |
| Glendive | 4,774 | 670.3 | D |
| Dillon | 4,278 | 420.8 | C |
| Hardin | 3,677 | 190.4 | A |
| Libby | 3,306 | 151.2 | A |
| Glasgow | 3,175 | 503.9 | C |
| Deer Lodge | 3,032 | 461.7 | C |
| Cut Bank | 3,004 | 1,032 | F |
| Red Lodge | 2,736 | 182.7 | A |
| Wolf Point | 2,479 | 484.1 | C |
| Conrad | 2,434 | 246.5 | B |
| Stevensville | 2,278 | 43.9 | A |
| Ronan City | 2,243 | 535 | F |
| East Helena | 2,206 | 136 | B |
| Manhattan | 2,115 | 189.1 | B |
| Colstrip | 2,044 | 0 | A+ |
| Columbus | 1,919 | 260.6 | C |
| Baker | 1,802 | 222 | A |
| Eureka | 1,585 | 189.3 | A |
| Thompson Falls | 1,519 | 329.2 | B |
| Plains | 1,261 | 0 | A+ |
| West Yellowstone | 1,206 | 82.9 | A |
| Chinook | 1,155 | 519.5 | C |
| Ennis | 1,092 | 0 | A+ |
| Troy | 935 | 641.7 | F |
| St. Ignatius | 836 | 478.5 | F |
| Bridger | 732 | 0 | A+ |
| Hot Springs | 636 | 471.7 | C |
Counties in Montana
All 56 Census county-equivalents in Montana appear in FBI Table 10 for this vintage. Missing counties are absent from the FBI source for this year, not dropped by PlainCrime. See national county coverage and methodology.
Largest counties in Montana, violent crime per 100K
Top 8 counties by population, violent crime per 100,000 residents. Hover a bar for the exact rate.
- Yellowstone 135
Yellowstone
135 /100K
- Gallatin 133
Gallatin
133 /100K
- Missoula 112
Missoula
112 /100K
- Flathead
Flathead
218 /100K
- Cascade 127
Cascade
127 /100K
- Lewis and Clark 124
Lewis and Clark
124 /100K
- Ravalli 188
Ravalli
188 /100K
- Butte-Silver Bow
Butte-Silver Bow
501 /100K
Nationwide peers for Montana
Similar violent rate (~426.4/100K)
Nearby States
Safest cities · Most dangerous · Trends · National rankings · Crime grades · Compare · Methodology
Primary source: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) Program, Crime in the United States annual release. State-level trends cross-check against the FBI Crime Data Explorer (CDE) API.
Population figures for rate calculations reference U.S. Census Bureau estimates where FBI-reported populations are unavailable. Verify with Census.gov QuickFacts.
Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Every figure on PlainCrime is rendered directly from FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on FBI Uniform Crime Reporting source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.