Cost of Living
per year
per month
How Missoula's prices compare to the US city average across major spending categories.
How far does your salary go in Missoula?
Your $100,000 in Missoula has the same purchasing power as $105,742 in the average US city. You'd need $5,742 less here to maintain that standard of living.
Demographics and workforce data from the US Census ACS 5-Year.
bachelor's or higher
Climate, safety, and walkability indicators.
See a side-by-side breakdown of cost of living, housing, and salaries.
Popular comparisons
Sorted by affordability — most affordable first.
Within 10 points of Missoula's cost index of 95, sorted by closest match.
So why do people move to Missoula? The honest answer involves a few specific things the data backs up — most clearly cheaper than the national average, with no fine print and it's an easy city to live in on a bike, plus 3 more things worth knowing. The detail on each one is below.
The composite cost-of-living index lands at 95, a comfortable 5% under the US norm. It shows up most clearly in housing, which is where the gap to coastal metros usually opens up. Median rent in town runs about $1,064/mo against a typical household income of $59,783, which is the kind of ratio that leaves room to save.
Bike Score of 74/100 in Missoula. That puts it in the small group of US cities where you can do groceries, commute, and run errands on a bike without it being a feat of urban survival.
Average AQI in Missoula comes in around 43, well into the "good" band. Clean air isn't a thing you appreciate until you've lived somewhere it wasn't — and this is the side of that line you want to be on.
Average commute time in Missoula runs around 16 minutes one-way — short enough that it doesn't restructure your day. Compared to the 45-plus-minute commutes that are normal in major metros, the difference adds up to a real lifestyle gap.
Missoula has a college-educated share of about 50% among adults 25+, which is higher than the national norm. It shows up in the local job mix, in the school district's reputation, and in the kind of conversations you have at the coffee shop.
Reasons are pulled from Missoula's actual data — Census ACS, BLS, BEA, NOAA, EPA AQS, FBI, and Walk Score. We don't list positives that aren't supported by the numbers, which is why different cities show different sections.
Yes, several times a winter. Missoula's winter average of about 25°F sits right around freezing, so storms typically drop real snow that lingers a few days before slush sets in.
A real winter, but not a punishing one. Missoula averages roughly 25°F in winter, with the coldest mornings dipping into the single digits a few times a year and most days landing somewhere between "chilly" and "actually cold".
Reliably warm. Missoula's summer averages around 81°F, the kind of heat where you remember to leave the house before noon for outdoor things and accept that the back of your shirt will be wet by lunchtime.
Approximately USDA Hardiness Zone 8. That's the band gardeners use to pick plants — anything rated for Zone 8 or colder should survive a typical winter in Missoula. (The estimate is derived from our winter-temperature data; the official USDA map uses station-level annual minimums and may differ by half a zone.)
Around 3,163 feet (964 m) above sea level. Visitors from the coast occasionally notice a slight shift in how dry the air feels; that's about the extent of it.
Worse than the national norm, but it depends where. Missoula's ~4,206 per 100,000 reflects a citywide aggregate. Some neighborhoods here are notably safer than the average; others are notably worse. Worth looking at the specific area, not the city-level number.
It's a middle-of-the-road US city on cost. Missoula's index of 95 sits within a few points of the national average — your money buys roughly what it would in a typical American metro.
Missoula scores 34 out of 100 on Walk Score, which translates to "car-dependent but not aggressively so". Transit Score is 36 out of 100. Some neighborhoods buck the citywide average; the dense inner cores are usually noticeably more walkable than the city number suggests.
As a rule of thumb, plan on about $66,199 to live in Missoula the way a $70,000 earner lives in a typical US city. The math gets less forgiving the lower you go below that. Median rent in Missoula runs about $1,064/mo — keeping housing under 30% of gross income points to a similar floor on what you'd want to earn.