Hill County, Montana

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $19,711 (27.2%) under the Montana median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 5.4% below the national average, so the nominal median of $52,798 is worth $55,812 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 20.7%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 11.3 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.
• Young population: Median age of 34 is materially below the U.S. norm, a workforce pipeline asset.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 977 workers (23.7% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $55,182. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,129 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $925M (2024).
• Wage stratification: Information averages $80,264 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $15,542, a 5.2x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Gasoline Stations and Fuel Dealers concentrates at 3.15x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 13 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 36.8% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.8x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• Elevated vacancy: 14.2% of housing units are vacant, above the Montana rate of 13.2%, and up from 13.3% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 45.4% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 19.1%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 31% of the vacant stock, or 4.4% of all housing units against the 14.2% headline vacancy rate. That is the figure to plan an incoming employer's housing against, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Rent affordability gap: None of the 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $36,556 can pay without cost burden (~$914/mo), and 32.2% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 15.2% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Healthy participation: 61.2% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 13.1-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.

Hill County shows meaningful potential for gasoline stations and fuel dealers attraction, with a 3.15x concentration and 115 jobs in this sub-sector.

The concentrated base spans gasoline stations and fuel dealers, utilities, and motor vehicle and parts dealers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 36.8% of the employment across them, the largest being visitor economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.