Flathead County Cities Retain Modest Population Growth Amid Overall Slowdown
Data released by the U.S. Census Bureau this week captures post-pandemic population growth, which has started to slow in recent years, mirroring national trends
By Lauren Frick
City and town population estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau on Thursday illustrated an overall slowing of growth in the Flathead Valley over the last year, while still showing that the area continues the post-pandemic trend of growing faster than other areas in Montana and much of the country.
Kalispell ranked as a top city for growth in the Flathead Valley and the state, increasing its population by 626 people between 2024 and 2025. This 2% population growth rate led the state’s largest cities, with Helena (1.3%), Bozeman (1.2%) and Missoula (0.9%) also sporting positive growth over the last year. Montana’s most populous city, Billings, saw a 0.2% decrease, bringing its 2025 population estimate to 121,239.
While local communities continue to register growth gains, the marginal increases reflect a nationwide trend of slowing growth rates following explosive pandemic-era growth.
Amid a widespread national slowdown in population growth, midsized cities remained close to the previous year’s patterns between July 1, 2024, and July 1, 2025. Drop-offs in average growth were steeper among the largest cities, but even where the largest cities maintained strong growth, they were often outpaced by smaller cities in the outer portions of the same metro area, according to a press release from the Census Bureau.
The South continued to dominate the lists of the nation’s fastest-growing and highest-gaining cities. The top five fastest-growing cities in the nation with populations of 20,000 or more were all in Texas, with four of them clustered in the suburbs of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area and the fifth located outside Houston, according to the press release.
The Census Bureau’s new data estimated Kalispell’s population to be 31,851 as of July 1, 2025 — a 2% increase from the year prior. This 2% growth rate continues a steady decrease for Kalispell in recent years, gradually dropping from 7.7% in 2022, to 4.3% in 2023 and 3.7% in 2024.
Despite the overall decline in growth rate, the Census Bureau’s five-year estimates still firmly place Kalispell as a top area for growth.
Between April 1, 2020 and July 1, 2025, Kalispell added 6,775 people for a total population increase of 27%. Again, this increase ranked higher than other major Montana cities, which saw population increases of 9.7% (Bozeman), 9.4% (Helena), 6.4% (Missoula) and 3.5% (Billings).
Kalispell also sat toward the top of the list of places with populations of 20,000 or more for growth between 2020 and 2025, ranking 48 out of nearly 1,900 cities and towns, according to the data. Forney, Texas, which is part of the Greater Dallas metro area, ranked first on the list, adding roughly 18,300 residents — representing a nearly 80% growth rate — over the last five years.
From 2024 to 2025, Whitefish saw a population increase of 1.12%, bringing its population total to 9,358, according to bureau data.
While the growth rate is a slight increase from the year prior (0.9%), the city, like Kalispell, has experienced a steady decline since 2020, dropping from a one-year growth rate of 8.3% in 2021, to 4.6% in 2022 and 2.6% in 2023. Between 2020 and 2025, Whitefish added an estimated 1,574 people, representing a 20.2% population increase.
Columbia Falls added 48 people, or 0.8%, to their population between 2024 and 2025, with the estimated population as of July 1, 2025 being 5,753, according to the Census Bureau. Of the three Flathead County cities, Columbia Falls saw the smallest population increase over the last five years, adding an estimated 432 people for a 8% population increase between 2020 and 2025.
To view the U.S. Census Bureau’s Vintage 2025 population estimates, click here.