Why Montana Is One of the Least Populated States

Montana is massive. Larger than Germany, but somehow with fewer people than San Jose, California. If you’ve ever stared out over the endless prairies, or gazed up at the shadow of Lolo Peak, you’ve probably asked the same thing Daily Americano asks in their latest video: why doesn’t anybody live here?

A great deal of that comes down to the winters. Negative 50 is nothing in eastern Montana. Snow drifts taller than NBA basketball players in Red Lodge. The Livingston winds are so strong, you might as well throw weights on your dog before you walk it. Heating bills reach $3,000, and even after you survive cold, you still have to dig your car out of the driveway.

Then there’s the isolation. Montana is 147,000 square miles with just 1.1 million people. For anyone counting, that’s seven per square mile. Runs to the grocery store may be hours long. If your car dies in the winter, help could be too.

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The problem is that isolation is also what makes Montana great. Fewer people, more elk. But more recently, it seems that the secret’s out. Housing prices in Bozeman and Missoula have reached stratospheric levels; and the once-empty trailheads? Full of pickups every fall. I’m just gonna be real with you, a little piece of me prays every time a January blizzard is the straw that forces a couple transplants to pack up and leave.

A video in Daily Americano sums it up: The beauty in Montana is hard to beat, but living here is tough. And maybe that’s the point. It takes a special kind of person to live here.