Helena vs Helena Valley Northwest

A side-by-side comparison of Helena and Helena Valley Northwest: population, income, housing, and more.

Helena and Helena Valley Northwest are places in Montana. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Helena has the higher population (33,126 vs 5,070 in Helena Valley Northwest). Helena Valley Northwest has the higher median household income ($101,278 vs $69,341 in Helena). Helena Valley Northwest has the higher median home value ($358,600 vs $355,100 in Helena).

Population, income & housing

	Helena	Helena Valley Northwest
Population	33,126	5,070
Median age	40.4 yrs	35.8 yrs
Median household income	$69,341	$101,278
Median home value	$355,100	$358,600
Median gross rent	$1,058	$1,640
Housing units	16,574	1,609
Homeownership rate	53.8%	94.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	50.4%	36.9%
Unemployment rate	3.1%	2.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Helena	Helena Valley Northwest
Population	32,024 → 33,126 (+3.4%)	4,465 → 5,070 (+13.5%)
Median household income	$61,324 → $69,341 (+13.1%)	$82,795 → $101,278 (+22.3%)
Median home value	$244,300 → $355,100 (+45.4%)	$250,100 → $358,600 (+43.4%)
Median gross rent	$820 → $1,058 (+29.0%)	$1,148 → $1,640 (+42.9%)

Helena

Population

32,02433,126

Median household income

$61,324$69,341

Median home value

$244,300$355,100

Median gross rent

$820$1,058

Helena Valley Northwest

Population

4,4655,070

Median household income

$82,795$101,278

Median home value

$250,100$358,600

Median gross rent

$1,148$1,640

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Helena	Helena Valley Northwest
Under 5	4.6%	8.0%
5 to 17	14.3%	21.8%
18 to 24	10.0%	3.4%
25 to 34	14.1%	16.0%
35 to 44	12.5%	15.1%
45 to 54	10.7%	10.3%
55 to 64	12.6%	12.9%
65 to 74	11.9%	7.7%
75 and over	9.3%	4.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Helena	Helena Valley Northwest
White (non-Hispanic)	87.2%	92.3%
Black or African American	0.8%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.1%	0.4%
Asian	0.9%	0.1%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	2.6%
Two or more races	5.1%	3.5%
Hispanic or Latino	4.8%	1.1%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Helena	Helena Valley Northwest
No high school diploma	3.9%	4.0%
High school graduate	19.4%	31.4%
Some college or associate's	26.3%	27.7%
Bachelor's degree	31.7%	31.2%
Graduate or professional degree	18.7%	5.8%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Helena	Helena Valley Northwest
Drove alone	65.4%	66.2%
Carpooled	8.5%	25.9%
Public transit	0.3%	0.0%
Walked	8.3%	0.3%
Bicycle	1.3%	0.0%
Worked from home	15.0%	6.2%
Other means	1.0%	1.4%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Helena	Helena Valley Northwest
1-unit, detached	52.4%	95.6%
1-unit, attached	6.1%	0.1%
2 to 4 units	20.8%	1.4%
5 to 19 units	8.8%	0.0%
20 or more units	8.4%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	3.5%	3.0%

Poverty & households

	Helena	Helena Valley Northwest
Poverty rate	9.1%	2.5%
Average household size	2.05	3.17
Mean commute (minutes)	14	21
Median year structure built	1975	2003