Montana Free Press
"Montana Population Growth Slows"
"After years of new arrivals swelling Montana’s population and straining its housing supply, new data released Dec. 19 by the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that the volume of net migration into the state has declined.
As of July 1, 2023, the federal demographics agency estimates Montana had 1,132,800 residents. That’s about 9,900 more than a year prior, or a 0.9% increase.
While that’s a lot of new Montanans — roughly as many people as the populations of Belgrade, Miles City or Whitefish — it’s a markedly more modest increase than the state has seen in prior years. Between mid-2021 and mid-2022, for example, the agency estimates Montana grew almost twice that fast, adding about 19,200 residents...
Since the 2020 census, which counted the state’s population as of April 1, 2020, the agency estimates that Montana’s population has grown by about 48,600 residents — slightly less than the current population of Bozeman proper.
Nearly all of that growth is attributable to in-migration."