Montana’s 5 Safest Cities of 2022

The SafeWise Team is pleased to release the eighth annual Safest Cities report.

See if your city made the full list.

Montana is the fourth-least concerned state in the US, with 31% of residents concerned about safety daily (US 47%). This is surprising since Montana sees above-average crime rates for both violent and property crime.

Montana saw the eighth-highest violent-crime increase in the nation, but among its safest cities, violent crimes fell below state, regional, and US rates.

• Violent crime rates
• Property crime rates
• Interesting findings
• The Safest Cities
• Methodology
• How to make a safe home anywhere
• How other cities compare
• How other states compare

Montana experienced a sharp rise in violent crimes compared to last year with the violent crime rate jumping from 4.2 per 1,000 people to 4.7. In contrast, the property crime rate saw a slight drop from 22.4 per 1,000 to 21.2. This is still higher than the national average of 19.6.

State of Safety survey respondents in Montana worried more frequently about their safety this reporting year (31%) than the last year (28%)—still sitting well below the national average (47%). Experiences with violent crime (9%) and gun violence (8%) have grown since last year, but those surveyed showed the most concern about package theft (31%).

We asked Montana residents which crimes they worry may happen to them. See if Montana residents are concerned about the same crime issues as the rest of the country.

View the complete 2022 State of Safety report.

Despite increasing violent crime, 31% of Montana residents feel safe in their state. Those living in The Big Sky Country also appear to have considerably lower concern for gun violence.

• 66% of Montanans reported feeling safe in their state compared to 55% of Americans.
• 9% of people in Montana reported having a personal experience with violent crime in the last 12 months prior to the survey—up from 8% the last year.
• 34% of survey respondents report using some form of personal protection—matching the US average.
• 36% of Montana residents say their personal safety has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, compared to 44% of Americans.

• 40% of those surveyed named gun violence their top safety concern (US 53%).
• 21% of Montana residents are most worried about a gun violence incident happening to them (US 38%).
• Montana has had 0 mass shootings in the past 3 years, which is incredibly rare.

Although Montana's property crime rate is higher than the national average, fewer residents told us they personally experienced property crime this reporting year.

Still, Montanans are more concerned about package theft and property crime happening to them than any type of violent crime. But Montana is less concerned about property crime than the nation as a whole.

• Fewer Montana residents (16%) reported personal experiences with property crime this reporting year compared the year before (27%)—a decrease of 41%.
• 15% of participants reported experiencing package theft in the 12 months prior to the survey, putting Montana well below the US average of 20%. This is one of the lowest rates in the country.
• 49% of survey respondents use some form of property protection. This is below the 60% national average.
• Even though Montana’s property crime rate (21.2 per 1,000) is higher than US rate (19.6), it’s lower than its regional average of 23.1 and it’s been declining every year.
• Montana's top form of property protection this year was firearms, with 30% of survey respondents using them (higher than the 26% national average).
• 24% of Montanans say the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the security of their property (US 29%).

For the purposes of this report, the terms “dangerous” and “safest” refer explicitly to crime rates as calculated from FBI crime data—no other characterization of any community is implied or intended.

• Every safest city’s violent crime rate is below state, regional, and US rates.
• Glendive and Dillon maintained their top 2 spots from the year before.
• Dillon is the only city to report 0 counts of rape.
• Dillon’s property crime rate of 2.3 is 89% lower than Montana’s general property crime rate of 21.2.
• There were only 2 reports of murder among the safest cities.
• All of the safest cities reported 0 robberies.
• All the safest cities have property crime rates well below the state, regional, and US rates.

VC=Violent crime
PC=Property crime

Learn how we identified the safest cities on our methodology page.

Whether your city made our list or not, we encourage everyone to be proactive about home security. One of the best ways to stop a burglary before it happens is to add a home security system.

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We calculated crime rates for every city in the state that met our population threshold, based on the state’s median population as calculated using FBI data. To request a report of the remaining cities in your state, sign up for our email newsletter (we make it easy in a quick form below!) or email info@safewise.com with the subject line: Safest Cities Full Report.

NOTE: If you don’t see your city on the list, it means that it was below the population threshold or didn’t submit a complete crime report to the FBI in 2020.

Click on the state image or dropdown menu below to check out the safest cities for each state.

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• Burglary Stats & Facts
• The Most Burglarized City in Every State

FBI: Crime Data Explorer, Accessed March 8, 2022.

US Census Bureau, "Data Explorer," Accessed January 24, 2022.

Best Places, “Find a Place Search Tool,” Accessed January 24, 2022.

SafeWise, “2021 State of Safety survey,” Accessed March 8, 2022.

Gun Violence Archive, “Past Summary Ledgers,” Accessed January 24, 2022.

Gun Violence Archive, “General Methodology,” Accessed March 8, 2022.

Melody Hicks, Ben Stickle, Joshua Harms, American Journal of Criminal Justice, “Assessing the Fear of Package Theft,” January 04, 2021. Accessed March 8, 2022.

For definitions and more on data sources, see our methodology page.