Billings vs Laurel

A side-by-side comparison of Billings and Laurel: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Billings has the higher population (118,321 vs 7,198 in Laurel). Billings has the higher median household income ($71,855 vs $66,382 in Laurel). Billings has the higher median home value ($311,800 vs $232,700 in Laurel).

Population, income & housing

	Billings	Laurel
Population	118,321	7,198
Median age	38.1 yrs	36.6 yrs
Median household income	$71,855	$66,382
Median home value	$311,800	$232,700
Median gross rent	$1,097	$953
Housing units	53,537	3,250
Homeownership rate	64.8%	57.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	37.0%	20.1%
Unemployment rate	3.5%	2.1%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Billings	Laurel
Population	109,595 → 118,321 (+8.0%)	6,834 → 7,198 (+5.3%)
Median household income	$59,656 → $71,855 (+20.4%)	$55,503 → $66,382 (+19.6%)
Median home value	$221,100 → $311,800 (+41.0%)	$174,000 → $232,700 (+33.7%)
Median gross rent	$899 → $1,097 (+22.0%)	$832 → $953 (+14.5%)

Billings

Population

109,595118,321

Median household income

$59,656$71,855

Median home value

$221,100$311,800

Median gross rent

$899$1,097

Laurel

Population

6,8347,198

Median household income

$55,503$66,382

Median home value

$174,000$232,700

Median gross rent

$832$953

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Billings	Laurel
Under 5	5.9%	4.6%
5 to 17	16.7%	18.8%
18 to 24	8.7%	7.6%
25 to 34	14.6%	14.8%
35 to 44	14.0%	10.6%
45 to 54	10.2%	13.6%
55 to 64	11.6%	15.0%
65 to 74	10.3%	7.2%
75 and over	8.0%	7.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Billings	Laurel
White (non-Hispanic)	83.2%	85.4%
Black or African American	0.5%	0.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	4.2%	0.5%
Asian	0.8%	2.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.0%
Some other race	0.2%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.9%	4.8%
Hispanic or Latino	7.2%	6.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Billings	Laurel
No high school diploma	4.5%	5.0%
High school graduate	27.6%	40.2%
Some college or associate's	30.8%	34.8%
Bachelor's degree	25.0%	15.6%
Graduate or professional degree	12.0%	4.5%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Billings	Laurel
Drove alone	78.5%	67.8%
Carpooled	9.1%	17.5%
Public transit	1.0%	2.0%
Walked	2.0%	2.3%
Bicycle	0.7%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.6%	10.1%
Other means	1.0%	0.2%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Billings	Laurel
1-unit, detached	63.1%	59.4%
1-unit, attached	7.0%	4.9%
2 to 4 units	9.5%	8.3%
5 to 19 units	7.3%	13.3%
20 or more units	7.1%	0.8%
Mobile home & other	6.0%	13.3%

Poverty & households

	Billings	Laurel
Poverty rate	10.6%	12.3%
Average household size	2.29	2.31
Mean commute (minutes)	17	18
Median year structure built	1979	1973