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State Life Score

Montana

Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade C-, 12th percentile of the national corpus.

38.7
Life Score / 100
C-
Grade (curved)
#45
of 51 states
12%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

Montana is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #45 of 51 (38.7/100, grade C-, 12th percentile). Carried by environment at 90/100; held back most by schools at 6/100.

12th
composite percentile
#45
of 51 peers
57th
cost dimension percentile
16th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · LOWER · ENVIRO-LED

Montana at a glance

Montana is a LOWER-band ENVIRO-LED state: environment leads at 90/100 while schools drags at 6/100 (MID cost · LOW wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Montana ranks #45 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #22 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where Montana sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

39 12th percentile higher than 12% of 51 US states

25–30: 1 US states (2%). Below this entry. 30–35: 2 US states (4%). Below this entry. 35–40: 4 US states (8%). This entry sits in this band. 40–45: 6 US states (12%). Above this entry. 45–50: 10 US states (20%). Above this entry. 50–55: 12 US states (24%). Above this entry. 55–60: 10 US states (20%). Above this entry. 60–65: 4 US states (8%). Above this entry. 65–70: 2 US states (4%). Above this entry. This state 25 70 every US state, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data

Dimension detail

How Montana scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 58/100 (20%)
Wages 16/100 (20%)
Rent 42/100 (15%)
Safety 26/100 (15%)
Schools 6/100 (10%)
Childcare 41/100 (10%)
Environment 90/100 (10%)

Read with Montana

Nearest composite peers and cost poles (LOWER · MID/LOW).

New Jersey

ABS(composite) peer at 38.6 (Δ 0.1 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade D vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · MID/LOW.

New York

ABS(composite) peer at 38.2 (Δ 0.5 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade D vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · MID/LOW.

Delaware

ABS(composite) peer at 40.0 (Δ 1.3 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · MID/LOW.

California

ABS(composite) peer at 40.1 (Δ 1.4 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · MID/LOW.

Idaho (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 56/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp MID vs this state's MID.

North Carolina (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 60/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp MID vs this state's MID.
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Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets, current as of 2026. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare