Silver Bow County area

Population and density of Silver Bow County

The Census Bureau estimates that 36,118 people lived in Silver Bow County on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,325 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #8 of 56 in Montana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 35,130, the population has grown by 988 (+2.8%), compared with +5.6% for Montana as a whole.

With 718 square miles of land, that is 50 people per square mile (19 per km²), placing Silver Bow County #1,551 nationally for density and #2 in Montana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Montana median is 2.8. Put another way, there are about 13 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Silver Bow County

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in Silver Bow County. Together they are home to 36,118 people (100%); the other 0 (0%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Butte-Silver Bow (balance), with 35,469 residents in the county.

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Silver Bow County. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Silver Bow County is a central county of the Butte-Silver Bow, MT Micropolitan Statistical Area. Silver Bow County is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 718 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #295 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #383 by population.

ZIP codes

7 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Silver Bow County; 3 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

59701597115972759743597485975059759

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Silver Bow County

Silver Bow County shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Silver Bow County. The largest neighbor is Beaverhead County (5,542.7 mi²) and the smallest is Deer Lodge County (736.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Silver Bow County forms a block of 12,242.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 5.9%.

How big is Silver Bow County compared with U.S. states?

Silver Bow County has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.4 times as much. Montana’s county land could hold about 203 areas the size of Silver Bow County.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 26.8 miles (43.1 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Silver Bow County?

Silver Bow County has more land than 1,970 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Silver Bow County at #1,374 nationally by total area, 122 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 0.1%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.1 percentage points lower. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Silver Bow County in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.