Living in Billings, MT

"Dangerous" is too broad a label for any city, but Billings does sit above national averages on crime. The violent crime index is 119 and property crime hits 134 — both past the 100-point U.S. baseline. Plenty of residents live comfortably and safely, but they've usually chosen their neighborhoods carefully. If you're considering a move, visit first, drive around at night, and look up crime stats block by block. Data: FBI Uniform Crime Report.

By most measures, yes. The median rent of $1,097/month against a median household income of $71,855/year works out to a 18.3% rent-to-income ratio. Financial planners generally want that number under 30%, so Billings clears the bar with room to spare. You'll have breathing space for savings, car payments, and the occasional splurge. Numbers from Census ACS 2023.

The average worker in Billings spends about 15 minutes getting to the office. Driving solo is the default (78.5%), with 7.6% working remotely and 1.0% on public transit. It's a fairly typical commute — not a selling point, not a dealbreaker.

Everything on this page is built from public government sources: rent and income figures from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS 5-Year Estimates, 2023); commute and transportation data from Census ACS tables B08303 and B08006; crime rates from the FBI Uniform Crime Report. We refresh each dataset monthly through an automated pipeline and cross-check for anomalies. No surveys, no user-submitted guesses — just official federal data presented in a way that's actually useful for people researching a move.