Crime & Safety in Montana
Montana's statewide crime picture runs genuinely mixed by specific measure, and this record discloses that real tension honestly rather than picking the more flattering figure: a 2024 violent crime rate 17.9% above the national average (13th-highest nationally), even as property crime ran below the national average, per montana.js's own crime metrics -- with real, substantial variation by specific city this record names directly.
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Learn moreMontana's statewide crime picture runs genuinely mixed: elevated violent crime, favorable property crime
Montana's 2024 violent crime rate ran 424 incidents per 100,000 residents -- a real, disclosed 17.9% above the national average of 359 per 100,000, ranking Montana 13th-highest nationally for violent crime, even as that rate fell a real 5.6% year-over-year, per montana.js's own crime metrics. Montana's property crime picture runs more favorably: 1,617 incidents per 100,000, ranking 28th nationally and running below the national property-crime average of 1,760 per 100,000. This record discloses that real tension directly rather than resolving it to one number, consistent with montana.js's own approach.
Billings and Great Falls carry real, disclosed, substantially elevated crime rates -- with genuinely different trend lines
This project's own Billings and Great Falls market research found real, city-specific figures running well above the statewide picture, each disclosed here directly. Billings' overall crime rate ran approximately 53.38 per 1,000 residents against a national rate of 33.37 per 1,000 -- roughly 1.81 times the national daily-crime average and 1.88 times the Montana average, with more than 95% of Montana communities carrying a lower crime rate -- even as sources cited a real, genuinely positive trend: a 2025 crime rate down approximately 10% versus 2024, and a five-year trend of decreasing violent and property crime. Great Falls ran even more elevated on aggregator sources reflecting FBI 2024 data: an overall crime rate of approximately 4,000.7 per 100,000 (roughly 88.78% above the national rate) and a property crime rate of approximately 3,426.4 per 100,000 (roughly 94.68% above a cited national rate and roughly 111.86% above the Montana statewide rate) -- with a real, disclosed cross-source tension specifically on the violent-crime figure this record does not resolve to one number.
Missoula and Helena run genuinely more favorably on some sources -- with a real, disclosed cross-source disagreement in Helena's case
This project's own Missoula and Helena market research found genuinely different pictures from Billings' and Great Falls' elevated figures. Sources reviewed for Missoula consistently described property crime (burglary, theft, and similar) as more prevalent than violent crime, generally framing Missoula as one of Montana's safer cities, with even higher-crime-activity neighborhoods within the city still cited as holding solid 'A' grades on at least one aggregator's scale, even as a real, disclosed cross-source tension on Missoula's precise violent-crime standing exists (one aggregator cited a rate suggesting below-average violent crime, while another framing ran less favorably). Helena's crime picture carries an even wider, real, disclosed disagreement this record does not paper over: sources reviewed for this project's Helena research cited both a rate approximately 48% below the national crime rate and, separately, both violent and property crime rates above national per-capita benchmarks, plus a cited approximately 16% year-over-year 2024-2025 increase -- a spread wide enough that this project's own Helena record deliberately did not assign either an above-average or below-average safety tag.
Confirm current, local crime data for your specific target community
As in every state, Montana's statewide figures do not describe every city, county, or neighborhood identically -- confirm current, local crime statistics directly for your specific target community rather than relying on the statewide figure alone, particularly given the real, substantial, disclosed variation this record found between Billings' and Great Falls' elevated rates, Missoula's genuinely more favorable reputation, and Helena's outright cross-source disagreement.
Key takeaways
- Montana's 2024 violent crime rate ran 17.9% above the national average (13th-highest nationally), even as property crime ran below the national average -- a real, disclosed statewide tension.
- Billings' crime rate ran roughly 1.81x the national average (though improving, down ~10% in 2025), while Great Falls ran roughly 88.78% above the national overall rate and 94.68% above it for property crime specifically.
- Missoula was generally described across sources as one of Montana's safer cities, with property crime more prevalent than violent crime.
- Helena's crime data carries a real, wide, disclosed cross-source disagreement -- one source cites a rate 48% below the national average, another cites both violent and property crime above national benchmarks -- wide enough that this project's own Helena record assigns no safety tag either way.
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