Two Montana Towns Named as The Top 100 Best Places to Live

Every year Livability.com compiles a list of the Top 100 Best Places to Live and two Montana towns made the list! To compile the list they analyze over 1,000 small to mid-sized towns and consider factors like safety, affordability, economic stability, outdoor recreation, accessibility, and community engagement.

I’ll admit at first I was a little disappointed that Bozeman didn’t even make the top 100. But perhaps this means people will be looking to these other top Montana towns to move to instead.

Here are the two Montana Towns that made the list:

Missoula – Ranked at #23

Missoula ranked well on the list because they have “retained a small-town atmosphere with a population of roughly 70,000” according to Livability.com. Other reasons that helped Missoula ranked high were it’s stable and growing economy, high quality of life, being a good place to start a family, and it’s easy access to nature for a variety of outdoor activities.

Billings – Ranked at #61

With steady growth and a good quality of life, Billings ranked #61 on the list.  Billings has a population of about 120,000 and they still have the feeling that your neighbor is family. Other highlighted features that Billings rank well were a short commute time (average is about 17 minutes), advanced healthcare services, plentiful jobs, and a reasonable cost of living.

Bozeman seems to check some of the boxes that were highlighted for Missoula and Billings. We have a stable and growing economy, plentiful jobs, and a small-town feel. Perhaps it was Bozeman’s high cost of living that knocked us out of the rankings. What are your thoughts? Do you think we should have made the list? Or are you please that we didn’t?