Plains, MT population, income and ZIP codes

Plains town is a small town in Montana, with 1,077 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #90 of 497 ranked by population — larger than 82% of them. The median age here is 43.5 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. 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 Plains town earn a median of $24,661 a year, 68.6% below the national figure of $78,538 and 61% below the $62,992 median for the 94 Montana cities we cover. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 19.1% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Plains town is valued at $209,200, 31% below the national figure and 17% below the $250,900 peer median, while median gross rent runs $782 a month, 44.4% below the national figure, or roughly $9,384 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 38.1% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is a stretch on median earnings. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 8.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 50.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

Home values sit at 8.5× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. 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.