State crime profile · 2024
Montana Crime Rates: Safest & Most Dangerous Cities
Crime data for 44 cities and 56 counties in Montana (MT), ranked safest to most dangerous from 114 reporting agencies.
- 426.4
- Violent / 100K
- 1,645.6
- Property / 100K
- 44
- Cities
- 56
- Counties
The verdict
Montana's 426.4 violent crimes per 100,000 runs 21% above the U.S. average, making it higher-crime than most states.
- 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.
State figures roll up the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) submissions from local and county agencies across the state, then express them per 100,000 residents so one state can be compared with another. Statewide averages hide a great deal of variation: a handful of large cities often account for much of a state's reported violent crime, while most of its land area and population live with markedly lower rates. Reporting completeness also differs between states, so a year-over-year change can reflect which agencies filed data as much as any real shift on the ground. Read a state number as the broad backdrop, then drill into the city and county pages for the local detail that actually shapes day-to-day decisions.
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
Top 50 by lowest violent crime rate
Most Dangerous Cities
Top 50 by highest violent crime rate
Crime Trends
Multi-year charts & analysis
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 292.9
Kalispell
292.9 /100K
- Bozeman
Bozeman
434.1 /100K
- Helena
Helena
513.7 /100K
- Great Falls
Great Falls
574.4 /100K
- Missoula
Missoula
596.9 /100K
- Billings
Billings
746.1 /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
746.1 /100K
- Missoula
Missoula
596.9 /100K
- Great Falls
Great Falls
574.4 /100K
- Helena
Helena
513.7 /100K
- Bozeman
Bozeman
434.1 /100K
- Kalispell 292.9
Kalispell
292.9 /100K
What this shows Billings reports the highest big-city violent-crime rate in Montana, at 746.1 per 100,000.
| 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
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 135.4
Yellowstone
135.4 /100K
- Gallatin 132.8
Gallatin
132.8 /100K
- Missoula 111.9
Missoula
111.9 /100K
- Flathead
Flathead
217.5 /100K
- Cascade 126.8
Cascade
126.8 /100K
- Lewis and Clark 124
Lewis and Clark
124 /100K
- Ravalli 187.9
Ravalli
187.9 /100K
- Butte-Silver Bow
Butte-Silver Bow
501 /100K
Nearby States
Compare Montana with neighboring states, or use the compare tool for side-by-side jurisdiction benchmarking.
Explore Montana crime data
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.
Using PlainCrime rankings responsibly
Crime rankings are most useful when they sit alongside other community-quality signals, school performance, housing affordability, employment, and access to healthcare. A safer-than-average violent-crime rate in a small commuter suburb does not by itself make a city a better place to live; it is one data point among many. Likewise, a higher-than-average rate in a dense urban center may reflect that residents and visitors interact with police more often, not that the city is necessarily unsafe for its residents. We provide cross-links from each city profile to neighboring jurisdictions, state averages, and national benchmarks so you can read each number in context rather than in isolation.
For news outlets, researchers, and concerned residents who cite our rankings, the most defensible approach is to quote the per-100,000 rate, the reporting year, and the source agency in the same sentence. Avoid framing crime statistics as predictive, UCR data describes what was reported in a past year, not what will happen tomorrow. Where possible, pair our rankings with longitudinal trend data on the relevant city's profile page to show whether the rate is moving up, holding steady, or falling year over year.
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.