Custer County vs Richland County

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

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

Custer County has the higher population (11,938 vs 11,329 in Richland County). Richland County has the higher median household income ($69,578 vs $63,585 in Custer County). Richland County has the higher median home value ($259,000 vs $204,200 in Custer County).

Population, income & housing

	Custer County	Richland County
Population	11,938	11,329
Median age	42.6 yrs	38.0 yrs
Median household income	$63,585	$69,578
Median home value	$204,200	$259,000
Median gross rent	$918	$866
Housing units	5,770	5,590
Homeownership rate	68.5%	69.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher	29.8%	19.4%
Unemployment rate	2.7%	3.8%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Custer County	Richland County
Population	11,729 → 11,938 (+1.8%)	11,199 → 11,329 (+1.2%)
Median household income	$52,965 → $63,585 (+20.1%)	$67,205 → $69,578 (+3.5%)
Median home value	$170,400 → $204,200 (+19.8%)	$230,100 → $259,000 (+12.6%)
Median gross rent	$758 → $918 (+21.1%)	$826 → $866 (+4.8%)

Custer County

Population

11,72911,938

Median household income

$52,965$63,585

Median home value

$170,400$204,200

Median gross rent

$758$918

Richland County

Population

11,19911,329

Median household income

$67,205$69,578

Median home value

$230,100$259,000

Median gross rent

$826$866

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Custer County	Richland County
Under 5	5.0%	5.9%
5 to 17	14.9%	19.4%
18 to 24	8.0%	7.9%
25 to 34	11.9%	13.0%
35 to 44	13.3%	12.7%
45 to 54	11.6%	10.9%
55 to 64	14.9%	13.0%
65 to 74	12.2%	10.8%
75 and over	8.2%	6.4%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Custer County	Richland County
White (non-Hispanic)	89.5%	87.6%
Black or African American	0.4%	0.2%
American Indian & Alaska Native	1.2%	0.2%
Asian	0.4%	0.3%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.1%	0.9%
Some other race	0.2%	0.2%
Two or more races	4.9%	5.1%
Hispanic or Latino	3.3%	5.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Custer County	Richland County
No high school diploma	5.3%	3.8%
High school graduate	29.9%	41.4%
Some college or associate's	35.0%	35.4%
Bachelor's degree	22.1%	15.5%
Graduate or professional degree	7.7%	3.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Custer County	Richland County
Drove alone	70.3%	77.9%
Carpooled	17.8%	7.8%
Public transit	0.1%	0.0%
Walked	5.1%	9.1%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	5.8%	5.1%
Other means	1.0%	0.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Custer County	Richland County
1-unit, detached	68.9%	62.7%
1-unit, attached	2.4%	1.0%
2 to 4 units	5.5%	7.1%
5 to 19 units	6.5%	6.2%
20 or more units	5.4%	5.4%
Mobile home & other	11.3%	17.6%

Poverty & households

	Custer County	Richland County
Poverty rate	11.7%	7.1%
Average household size	2.28	2.51
Mean commute (minutes)	14	20
Median year structure built	1963	1981