As Predicted, Flathead Continues Dominating Montana Growth

The Flathead Valley of Montana continues to dominate when it comes to growth in the state. Plus, look at how the numbers stack up when you compare Yellowstone County to over half of the counties in the state.

We first told you on the radio back in April about some of these stats, thanks to Dan Stusek who served on Montana's Redistricting Commission. Broadwater County had the largest percentage increase in population between 2020 and 2024, but Flathead County had the largest increase when it comes to overall numbers.

Micah Drew, who writes for a liberal news site called the Daily Montanan, put together an interesting follow up.

Micah Drew: "Since 2020, however, Flathead County has led the state in sheer number of additional residents, adding more than 10,100 to Gallatin’s just over 8,000 and Yellowstone County’s 6,800...Kalispell’s growth is even more drastic over the last four years. Between 2020 and 2024, the city added 6,218 new residents, a 24.8% increase that ranked the city 39th in the nation for growth among cities with more than 20,000 residents."

I didn't mention it in this story here, but I remember chatting with Jeremy Carl a few years ago, and he predicted that the Flathead would continue to see strong growth and may one day overtake Missoula County.

Here's another crazy stat Micah shared: "The state’s largest county, Yellowstone, with 171,583 residents, is more populous than the state’s 36 least inhabited combined."

On Wednesday, we got a call from Flathead County Commissioner Pam Holmquist talking about the property tax relief legislation that came out of Montana's legislative session. While chatting with her about that, I also brought up the latest census numbers showing the growth in Flathead County.

Commissioner Holmquist: "We're definitely- been growing way too fast, as a third generation Flathead County person here, it's just, it's just really sad to see some of the farmland being put into subdivisions...the growth here has been crazy, which creates a lot of issues for government. Kalispell has seen an immense amount of growth."

She added that Kalispell saw it coming early on and invested in infrastructure and new housing is coming online.

Commissioner Holmquist: "I've been talking to some realtors and economists here, and they're saying that actually rent is starting to come down, finally, a little bit, because of all the property and condos that have come online or apartments. So actually, we're starting to kind of turn a corner, but I don't know- it's going to take a long time to absorb all this growth."