City safety & data profile
HelenaMT
Helena, MT is a 32K-resident city in Lewis and Clark County with a median household income of $71,036.
Lewis and Clark County, Montana. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Helena, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Helena has a population larger than 65% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $387,300, and 2 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-05
- 32K
- Population (place)
- Top 35%
- By size
- $71,036
- Median income (place)
- $387,300
- Median home (place)
- 8.8%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Helena
Helena posts a median household income higher than 38% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 2 hospitals serve the Helena area.
- Bottom 39%
- by median income, US cities
- 2
- hospitals in & near Helena
Where Helena income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$71,036 Bottom 38% higher than 38% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. 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 U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
The quick read
Reading Helena, MT beyond the headline numbers
Helena sits inside Lewis and Clark County, Montana, at roughly 46.59°N, -112.04°W. Population 32,091, $71,036 median household income. Median home value $387,300, median rent $1,092. Poverty rate 8.8%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
2 hospitals in/around Helena, 3/5 avg rating, 1 with an ER.
At 8.8%, poverty in Helena, MT runs below the midpoint of reporting cities -- enough to matter locally, not enough to dominate the city's profile.
The median home in Helena costs around 5.5 times what a median household earns in a year -- the most expensive quarter of reporting cities, and far enough ahead of local pay that ownership is largely closed to median earners.
16.2% of Helena workers are remote, above the midpoint of reporting cities.
Among the CDC measures on this page, binge drinking departs furthest from its peer median: 19.8% in Helena, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Helena from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Lewis and Clark County): Helena's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 8.8% -29% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 2.8% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 50.6% |
| Work From Home | 16.2% |
| Public Transit | 0.3% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 2 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Helena?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Helena right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet MT-HELENA-MT · Helena
Helena: 6 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.
- VOL-LIGHT 6 on record
- WX-LED 67% weather
- DESK-MIX NOAA · USGS
- PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Detroit
Tagged alert mix: Helena
Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag
- Weather Alerts
Weather Alerts
4
- Earthquakes
Earthquakes
2
What this shows 6 tagged notices on record for Helena.
Nearest tagged-volume peer: Detroit, MI (6 tagged · Δ0)
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Helena; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Montana state hubs · Methodology
Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4
Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (6 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Helena, MT? ▼
What is the median household income in Helena? ▼
What is the median home value in Helena? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Helena? ▼
How many hospitals are in Helena? ▼
What is the median age in Helena? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Helena, both outside Montana so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside MT (8.8% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside MT ($71,036 here).
Compare Helena with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Helena's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Helena area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Helena against Montana peers on any ranking lens. Explore Montana
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Lewis and Clark County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.