Chester, MT population, income and ZIP codes

Chester town is a very small community in Montana, with 704 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #125 of 497 ranked by population — larger than 75% of them. The median age here is 53.3 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Chester town earn a median of $53,583 a year, 31.8% below the national figure of $78,538 and 15% below the $62,992 median for the 94 Montana cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 12% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Chester town is valued at $156,900, 48.3% below the national figure and 37% below the $250,900 peer median, while median gross rent runs $662 a month, 52.9% below the national figure, or roughly $7,944 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 14.8% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 2.9×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 56.6% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

A median age of 53.3 puts Chester town well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages. With 704 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Chester town against its county rather than against national figures.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.