Silver Bow 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 $10,755 (14.8%) 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 $61,754 is worth $65,279 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 14.8%, 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 7.7 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 2,939 workers (27.2% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $58,032. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 2,360 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $2.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction averages $109,553 while Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation averages $19,346, a 5.7x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Beverage and Tobacco Product Manufacturing concentrates at 3.88x the national norm, strong concentration that anchors the local economy and supports supply-chain attraction strategy.
• Cluster depth: 9 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 26.9% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.
• Attraction whitespace: 3 sub-sectors register LQ < 0.5 with at least 50 employed, candidates for diversification or recruitment depending on labor-market fit.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 4.1x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 70.8% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 11.9% of housing units are vacant, below the Montana rate of 13.2%, and down from 13.2% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 41.4% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 18.8%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 27.9% of the vacant stock, or 3.3% of all housing units against the 11.9% 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 $37,161 can pay without cost burden (~$929/mo), and 40.5% of renter households are already cost-burdened, 23.6% severely so; workforce housing cost burden warrants attention.

• Succession risk is real: 22.5% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Healthy participation: 60.8% labor force participation reflects a steady, available local workforce.
• Short commutes: 16.9-minute mean commute is a quality-of-life and labor-access advantage worth surfacing for site selectors.
• Talent pipeline: 2 institutions in Silver Bow County award 520 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

Silver Bow County shows meaningful potential for beverage and tobacco product manufacturing attraction, with a 3.88x concentration and 135 jobs in this sub-sector. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.5% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans beverage and tobacco product manufacturing, rental and leasing services, and accommodation, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 26.9% of the employment across them, the largest being health care economy. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.