59759Butte-Silver Bow, Montana

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 59759.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: opportunity. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
SchoolsTop 48% of 4,422 published ZIP areas53
GrowthTop 40% of 5,428 published ZIP areas56
Housing affordability4137th of 6,685 published ZIP areas72
Climate6755th of 6,789 published ZIP areas47
Physical resilience4581st of 6,709 published ZIP areas40
AccessTop 48% of 6,791 published ZIP areas93
Economic stability5559th of 6,742 published ZIP areas39
The quick read

In the public schools here, 43% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.6 students for every teacher.

111 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 7% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

A major airport is 18 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
3,631
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$60,571
Bottom 30% nationally
Density
8/sq mi
440.1 sq mi of land
Median age
56.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Butte-Silver Bow
Montana
Metro area
Butte-Silver Bow, MT
Nearest major airport
BTM
18 mi · Bert Mooney
Median home value
$353,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$9,044$60,571Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,768$35,823Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.1%Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.8 minTop 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.4%Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation48.7%Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202461k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $60,571 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

43% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 47% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
3
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
43.1%
Top 43% in Montana
Reading proficiency
47.4%
Bottom 36% in Montana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Whitehall ElementaryWhitehall Elem19211.354%49%
Whitehall High SchoolWhitehall H S16120.1
Whitehall 6-8Whitehall Elem11012.225%45%

50.3% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Montana’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $923 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.8 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
18.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$923
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$353,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.84Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate77.9%Bottom 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±1701,810Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$82$923Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$45,770$353,900Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income18.3%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.9%Bottom 46%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
56/ 100
Top 40% of 5,428 published city profiles

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

At 3.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
111
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.2
Top 46% nationally
Year over year
−7%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
22.5%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Butte-Silver Bow, MT, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

3 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 81°F and January a low of 8°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 12.8 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 31, in the Good band, and about 5 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

0°20°40°60°80°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station BUTTE BERT MOONEY AP, 18.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND2.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index66.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation12.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low8°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high81°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months31991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10052024 calendar year
Median air quality index31.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing45°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
31
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
66
90th percentile index
Days above 100
5
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

40 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, cold wave and wildfire.

Overall hazard risk is lower than 87% of measured US ZIP areas.

WildfireHigh
EarthquakeHigh
Cold waveModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: landslide, winter weather, lightning, avalanche, drought, hail, ice storm, strong wind, tornado, volcanic activity.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Silver Bow County records 0.0 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, lower than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 24.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 27.5 per 100,000 residents in Silver Bow County.

Homicide
0.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
24.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
27.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
27.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Silver Bow County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around 59759 rather than 59759 itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 18 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Bert MooneyBTM18 mi9,000 ft
Bozeman Yellowstone IntlBZN49 mi8,994 ft
Helena RgnlHLN53 mi9,000 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

59759 vs Butte-Silver Bow

How this ZIP area compares with Butte-Silver Bow as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

59759
Butte-Silver Bow
Median household income
$60,571
vs
$61,857
Per capita income
$35,823
vs
$36,035
Population density
8/sq mi
vs
49/sq mi
Median home value
$353,900
vs
$257,800
Median gross rent
$923
vs
$856
Homeownership rate
77.9%
vs
70.7%
Bachelor's degree or higher
17.4%
vs
28.1%
Poverty rate
11.1%
vs
14.8%
Median age
56.4
vs
40.6

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.