Do you live in one of the murder capitals of Montana?
We all watch the news with horror when we hear about a homicide that happens not that far away from us. While a murder just blocks or even a couple of towns away from your house would make anyone uneasy, in the long run, most likely, where you live is relatively safe.
So we wanted to get the facts straight and dug into the FBI crime data in order to identify the places with the most murders and the highest murder rates per capita in Montana.
The result is the Murder Capitals of the Treasure State for 2020:
The city with highest murder rate in Montana? That would be Belgrade with 11.5 murders per 100,000 people.
While the city with highest number of murders period? Billings with 8.
Read on below to see how we crunched the numbers and how your town ranked. There were ‘only’ 4 cities in Montana where a city reported a murder to the FBI, meaning 25 places had no murder.
For more reading on the Treasure State check out:
- 10 Best Places To Live In Montana
- 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Montana
- 10 Most Dangerous Cities In Montana
The 10 Murder Capitals Of Montana For 2020
Billings is the largest city in the state of Montana, and the principal city of the Billings Metropolitan Area with a population of 166,855. It has a trade area of over half a million people.
Helena is the state capital of the U.S. state of Montana and the county seat of Lewis and Clark County.
Missoula is a city in the U.S. state of Montana and is the county seat of Missoula County. It is located along the Clark Fork River near its confluences with the Bitterroot and Blackfoot Rivers in western Montana and at the convergence of five mountain ranges, thus is often described as the “hub of five valleys”. In 2016, the United States Census Bureau estimated the city’s population at 72,364 and the population of the Missoula Metropolitan Area at 116,130. In the 1990s, Missoula overtook GreatFalls as Montana-s secondlargest city, behind Billings. Missoula is home to the University of Montana, a public research university.
How we calculated the murder capitals of Montana
While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in a state are the most dangerous, we didn’t want to rely on speculation and opinion. Instead, we looked at the hard numbers from the FBI’s last year of reporting. Specifically, we analyzed the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report which summarizes the number of murders that may happen in each city per year.
We only looked every single city in Montana for which FBI data was available for the most recent FBI Crime In The United States. That left us with 4 cities to rank.
Finally, we averaged the two scores into an index:
- The raw number of murders in each city
- The murders per person
We felt as if a small place with 2,500 people and two murders makes it a lot more dangerous than a city of 25,000 people with three murders. Any ties went to the larger city. You can download the data here.
We must note that this report is not an analysis of the effectiveness of local police departments. It simply states where murders occurred most frequently on an absolute and rate basis.
There You Have It – The Places With The Most Murders In Montana For 2020
If you’re looking at the places in Montana with the most murders, and where residents have the highest chances of being killed themselves, this is an accurate list. Again, these statistics are an indication of where crimes occur, not a statement about the effectiveness of the law enforcement in the areas they serve.
For more montana reading, check out:
- 10 Best Places To Raise A Family In Montana
- These Are The 10 Fastest Growing Cities In Montana
- 10 Safest Places In Montana
- 10 Best Cities For Singles In Montana
- 10 Worst Places To Live In Montana
Detailed List Of The Places With The Most Murder In Montana For 2020
| Rank | City | Murders |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Billings, MT | 8.0 |
| 2 | Belgrade, MT | 1.0 |
| 3 | Helena, MT | 2.0 |
| 4 | Missoula, MT | 2.0 |
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