Custer vs Shepherd

A side-by-side comparison of Custer and Shepherd: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Shepherd has the higher population (613 vs 155 in Custer). Shepherd has the higher median home value ($179,700 vs $121,700 in Custer). Since 2019, Custer's population has grown faster (+29.2% vs -31.5%).

Population, income & housing

	Custer	Shepherd
Population	155	613
Median age	59.5 yrs	47.1 yrs
Median household income	$70,000	—
Median home value	$121,700	$179,700
Median gross rent	$431	—
Housing units	96	261
Homeownership rate	81.3%	94.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	23.2%	26.2%
Unemployment rate	2.4%	3.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Custer	Shepherd
Population	120 → 155 (+29.2%)	895 → 613 (-31.5%)
Median household income	$36,500 → $70,000 (+91.8%)	$111,250 → $125,179 (+12.5%)
Median home value	$82,100 → $121,700 (+48.2%)	$245,800 → $179,700 (-26.9%)
Median gross rent	$575 → $431 (-25.0%)	—

Custer

Population

120155

Median household income

$36,500$70,000

Median home value

$82,100$121,700

Median gross rent

$575$431

Shepherd

Population

895613

Median household income

$111,250$125,179

Median home value

$245,800$179,700

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Custer	Shepherd
Under 5	6.5%	6.4%
5 to 17	11.6%	19.4%
18 to 24	1.3%	8.8%
25 to 34	9.7%	5.1%
35 to 44	1.9%	8.6%
45 to 54	3.9%	31.5%
55 to 64	38.7%	10.3%
65 to 74	12.3%	7.2%
75 and over	14.2%	2.8%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Custer	Shepherd
White (non-Hispanic)	96.1%	100.0%
Black or African American	0.0%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.0%
Asian	0.0%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	0.0%
Two or more races	3.9%	0.0%
Hispanic or Latino	0.0%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Custer	Shepherd
No high school diploma	5.6%	5.0%
High school graduate	32.8%	26.4%
Some college or associate's	38.4%	42.4%
Bachelor's degree	15.2%	16.2%
Graduate or professional degree	8.0%	10.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Custer	Shepherd
Drove alone	82.9%	82.4%
Carpooled	1.2%	0.0%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	11.0%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	4.9%	17.6%
Other means	0.0%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Custer	Shepherd
1-unit, detached	67.7%	50.2%
1-unit, attached	1.0%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	5.2%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	0.0%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.0%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	26.0%	49.8%

Poverty & households

	Custer	Shepherd
Poverty rate	18.1%	9.3%
Average household size	1.94	2.35
Mean commute (minutes)	34	28
Median year structure built	1956	1988