An Overview of Montana’s Economy

Montana’s Economy Is Growing and Outperforming Rest of the Nation From , Montana’s employment increased substantially while total real personal income increased by more than a third. Compared to the U.S., Montana’s real per capita income grew nearly three times as fast. This growth is driven by an increase in higher quality jobs, and the rapid increase of investment and retirement income in the state.

A Mix of Industries Led Montana’s Job Growth From , Montana’s economy created 79,863 net new jobs—with 78 percent coming from service-related industries such as health care, real estate, and professional and technical services.

The State’s Industry Mix Is Diverse Services are 67% of employment; Non-Services are 18%; and Government, mostly local, is 15%. Within these three groupings, a wide mix of sectors—from health care (11%) to construction (7%) to professional services (6%)—are Montana’s leading employers. As the state’s economy diversifies, state assets—such as quality education and federal public lands—are increasingly important to attracting businesses and people crucial to the state’s economic future.

Montana’s Population Is Growing, But Not Evenly Changes in population growth (births and deaths and net migration) vary widely across Montana. With these changes, seven counties today generate more than two-thirds of all jobs and total personal income in the state.

Counties with Federal Land Attract Workers and Retirees During the past ten years, Montana counties with a higher share of federal lands have outperformed counties with a smaller share of federal lands, attracting a higher rate of in- migration and more overall population growth.

The Fastest Growing Counties Are Diverse Economically, And Have Access to Public Lands The top five fastest growing Montana counties during the time period combined nearby public lands and a diversity of growing economic sectors.

Baby Boomers Are Moving to Montana Counties with Protected Federal Lands Counties with protected lands—such as National Parks or Wilderness—are benefitting from Baby Boomers who are moving to counties with high natural amenities.

Non-Labor Income, from Retirees and Investments, Is Increasingly Important Source of Montanans’ Personal Income Non-labor income in the form of investments, along with retirement and other age-related payments, now accounts for 42 percent of personal income in Montana, and nearly half of net new personal income growth in the last decade. In 2013, investment and retirement-related income represented $13.8 billion. This money in turn stimulates health care, construction, and other sectors.

And Non-Labor Income Is Growing Fast, And Often as Large as Other Important Economic Sectors Just the increase in investment income from ($2.5 billion) was greater than all personal income earned from construction ($2 billion) in 2013 or three times the personal income earned in farming ($817 million) in Same for Age-Related payments: the increase ($1.6 billion) was larger than all personal income earned from mining, including oil and natural gas ($1.2 billion) in 2013.

One-third of Montana’s land base is managed by the Forest Service, BLM, National Park Service Federal Lands Are One of Montana’s Competitive Strengths

Protected Federal Lands Help Drive Job Growth Percent Change in Employment, Western Non-Metro Counties, Percent of Federal Land in County “Protected” During the last four decades western non-metro counties with more than 30 percent federal protected land increased jobs four times faster than non-metro counties with no protected federal lands (345% vs. 83%).

Protected Federal Lands Contribute to Higher Per Capita Incomes In 2010, peer-reviewed research showed that western non-metro counties had, on average, a per capita income that was $436 higher for every 10,000 acres of protected public land within their boundaries. In other words, if counties A and B were identical in every way, but county A had 50,000 acres of protected public land and county B had none, one would expect income in county A to be $2,180 higher per person.

References Data in this publication are from: U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Economic Accounts, Washington, D.C. U.S. Department of Commerce Census Bureau, Population Division, Washington, D.C. U.S. Geological Survey, Gap Analysis Program Protected Areas Database of the United States (PADUS) version 1.3 Montana’s seven largest counties are Cascade, Flathead, Gallatin, Lewis and Clark, Missoula, Silver Bow, and Yellowstone. The West is defined as the 11 public lands continental western states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. “Protected” federal lands include areas such as National Parks, Wilderness, National Monuments, National Conservation Areas, National Recreation Areas, National Wild and Scenic Rivers, and National Wildlife Refuges. For more details, see: For job growth, see: for migration and population change, see: for non-labor income, see: Lorah, P. R. Southwick, et al Environmental Protection, Population Change, and Economic Development in the Rural Western United States. Population and Environment 24(3): ; McGranahan, D. A Natural Amenities Drive Rural Population Change. E. R. S. U.S. Department of Agriculture. Washington, D.C. Non-Metropolitan counties are counties without an urbanized area of 50,000 or more population, or a high degree of social and economic integration with a Metropolitan Statistical Area as measured by commuting ties. Rasker, R., P.H. Gude, M. Delorey The Effect of Protected Federal Lands on Economic Prosperity in the Non-Metropolitan West. Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy.

Contact Information: Chris Mehl Policy Director