Best PlacesYellowstone County, MT Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Yellowstone County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages hide a wide spread here, so the area matters as much as the address. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Yellowstone County ranks 262nd of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. Paychecks stretch further here than almost anywhere else: the median household brings in $83,933, everyday costs sit below the national average, and a strong job market ranks near the top of the country. The main drawbacks are childcare costs, noise, and tree cover.
The best neighborhoods in Yellowstone County
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Yellowstone County
The parts of Yellowstone County, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Laurel
More residents vote.
Shepherd
More households have young kids and crime runs lower.
Billings
Streets are more walkable and biking is better.
Lockwood
Local pay stretches less far and incomes run lower.
Yellowstone County shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 14% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Yellowstone County's strengths and weaknesses
Yellowstone County ranks where it does because the parts of life that are hardest to change mostly work here. Low disaster risk, cell coverage, and few empty homes carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. Childcare costs, noise, and tree cover hold the score down. The measures below break that down, and the map shows how much of it holds street by street.
Where Yellowstone County ranks high
- Disaster safetyBetter than 96% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of counties
- Low vacancyBetter than 91% of counties
- Crime safetyBetter than 90% of counties
- Local economyBetter than 86% of counties
Where Yellowstone County ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,072 a month, better than only 13% of counties
- QuietBetter than only 14% of counties
- Tree shadeBetter than only 15% of counties
- Big-city accessBetter than only 18% of counties
- TransitBetter than only 35% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Yellowstone County
A household needs to earn about $91,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Yellowstone County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $83,933; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Yellowstone County's effective rate of 0.78%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Yellowstone County
Yellowstone County's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Yellowstone County.
Who works in Yellowstone County, and how
Work in Yellowstone County centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Yellowstone County
Yellowstone County has more parkland per resident than 84% of counties and more late-night spots per resident than 86% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Yellowstone County and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Yellowstone County growing, and who is moving in?
Yellowstone County has grown about 10% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Ravalli County, MT.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Yellowstone County go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Yellowstone County, month by month
Yellowstone County sees roughly 134 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 39, with lows near 17. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 39° | 27° | 17° |
| April | 60° | 45° | 33° |
| July | 92° | 75° | 59° |
| October | 63° | 48° | 36° |
Flying in and out of Yellowstone County
The nearest airport, Billings Logan International, is about 1 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Salt Lake City International, about 386 miles away.
The best schools in and around Yellowstone County
Schools across Yellowstone County average a C+, better than 48% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Meadowlark SchoolA− · 61% proficient
- Arrowhead SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Tongue River ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Tongue River Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
- Broadview 7-8A · 60% proficient
- Rocky Mountain Middle SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top high schools
- Tongue River High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
- Rocky Mountain High SchoolB+ · 57% proficient
- Custer High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Yellowstone County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Yellowstone County measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Yellowstone County against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Yellowstone County suits
Families
Schools land around the 48th percentile and crime safety beats 90%.
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 82% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 9% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 85% of counties and health care access beats 63%.
Common questions about living in Yellowstone County
Is Yellowstone County a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Yellowstone County ranks 262nd of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low disaster risk, cell coverage, and few empty homes, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Yellowstone County expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $348,442. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $83,933 median income, cost of living beats 82% of counties.
Is Yellowstone County safe?
Yes, Yellowstone County is safer than 90% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $355 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Yellowstone County?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 39 with lows near 17. That works out to about 134 pleasant days a year, more than 85% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Yellowstone County?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Laurel, Shepherd, and Billings. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Yellowstone County good for families?
Schools beat 48% of counties, crime safety beats 90%, and childcare runs $1,072 a month.
Is Yellowstone County good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 82% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 76% of counties. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Yellowstone County with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Yellowstone County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Yellowstone County represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Yellowstone County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Yellowstone County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Yellowstone County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Yellowstone County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Yellowstone County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Yellowstone County detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.