Montana Counties

Complete list of all 56 counties in Montana with population, area, median income, and county seats — plus a free printable blank map.

Counties

Population

1,117,606

Area

145,546 sq mi

Capital

Helena

Time Zone

Mountain (MT)

Labeled outline map of Montana counties. Download a printable version in SVG, PNG, or PDF.

All 56 Montana counties

County	County Seat	Population ▼	Area	Median Income	Cities
Yellowstone	—	168,503	2,633 mi²	$79,471	9
Gallatin	—	124,462	2,603 mi²	$93,570	7
Missoula	—	119,280	2,593 mi²	$76,637	9
Flathead	—	104,257	5,088 mi²	$73,505	15
Cascade	—	84,584	2,698 mi²	$68,748	14
Lewis and Clark	—	73,928	3,459 mi²	$81,913	8
Ravalli	—	47,733	2,391 mi²	$73,290	10
Lake	—	36,471	1,490 mi²	$67,893	12
Silver Bow	—	35,379	718 mi²	$61,437	3
Lincoln	—	21,175	3,613 mi²	$48,941	7
Park	—	17,500	2,803 mi²	$70,458	9
Hill	—	17,162	2,899 mi²	$52,675	7
Glacier	—	13,644	2,996 mi²	$48,137	4
Jefferson	—	13,276	1,656 mi²	$96,902	6
Sanders	—	13,266	2,761 mi²	$58,174	9

How many counties does Montana have?

Montana has 56 counties covering 145,546 square miles and roughly 1,117,606 residents. The state was admitted to the Union in 1889 as the 41st state, and the current county boundaries reflect more than a century of administrative subdivision.

The largest county by land area is Beaverhead County at 5,542 square miles, home to about 9,667 residents. The most populous is Yellowstone County with approximately 168,503 residents — a density of about 64 people per square mile.

At the other end of the scale, Petroleum County has only about 395 residents.

Montana’s capital is Helena, while the largest city is Billings — a common pattern in the United States, where many states placed their capitals in smaller, more central towns rather than their largest commercial hubs.

Related resources

Download a printable outline of Montana’s county boundaries from our blank map of Montana page — available in SVG, PNG, and PDF.

Use the What County Am I In? tool to detect which Montana county a GPS location or address falls in, or the Address to County Lookup for batch input.

For demographic radius analysis, the Find ZIP Codes in Radius and Population Within Radius tools let you draw a circle around any Montana address and see every ZIP code and the total population inside.

Two SimpleMapLab studies cover Montana specifically: the 100-mile radius around Helena measures how much of the state lives within 100 miles of its capitol, and the loneliest town in Montana ranks the state’s most isolated inhabited place. The county-counts blog post puts Montana’s 56 counties in national context.

Frequently asked questions

Montana has 56 counties. The state was admitted to the Union in 1889 as the 41st state. County boundaries have shifted over time as the population spread and new administrative units were carved from existing ones.

Beaverhead County is the largest by land area at 5,542 square miles, with about 9,667 residents.

Yellowstone County is the most populous, with approximately 168,503 residents over 2,633 square miles.

Petroleum County has the smallest population at about 395 residents.

Helena is the state capital. The largest city is Billings — a common pattern in the US, where many states placed their capitals in smaller, more central towns rather than their largest commercial hubs.

Population, area, and demographic figures are aggregated from ZIP-code-level US Census data (via the SimpleMaps dataset) and the US Census Gazetteer. County boundaries used to render the map are from the US Atlas TopoJSON build of the Census Bureau's TIGER/Line shapefiles. The data is public domain.

Data sources

Population and demographics are aggregated from ZIP-code-level US Census data via the SimpleMaps dataset. Countiesboundaries are from the US Atlas TopoJSON build of the Census Bureau’s TIGER/Line shapefiles. Land area is from the Census Gazetteer. State counts follow the US Census Bureau’s definition of counties and county-equivalents (50 states + DC = 3,143). All sources are public domain.

Neighboring states