Montana small business statistics
Montana produced 29,887 business applications in 2025, up 10.9% from 2024 and 111.2% from the pre-pandemic 2019 baseline. The page shows the latest employer-likely application signal, county concentration after adjusting for population, private-sector labor growth, SBA lending, unincorporated receipts, bankruptcy filings, and federal contract demand.
Public source files covering Montana business formation, labor, lending, proprietor income, bankruptcy, and federal contracting.
What the data shows
The topline combines new filing volume, employer-likely application quality, county concentration, labor-market structure, lending, and business stress signals.
Montana logged 29,887 business applications in 2025, up 10.9% from 2024 and 111.2% from the pre-pandemic 2019 baseline.
Through May 2026, total applications were up 11.7% from the same months in 2025; high-propensity applications were up 8.8%.
Flathead filed 8,727 applications in 2025, the largest county total in Montana. Flathead also led the high-volume counties after adjusting for population, a rate that should be treated as filing intensity rather than a storefront-opening count.
Professional services added the most private-sector establishments since 2019. Construction added the most private-sector jobs.
SBA 7(a) and 504 approvals to Montana businesses reached $178.5M in FY2025 across 317 loans, led by retail trade, accommodation and food services, construction, professional services, and Real estate and rental.
Business bankruptcy cases tied to Montana counties held at 46 in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2026.
New business formation
Montana business applications reached 29,887 in 2025, up 10.9% from 2024. Through May 2026, applications were running up 11.7% from the same months in 2025.
The long comparison starts before the pandemic reset.
The 2019 comparison uses the last full pre-pandemic year. The shutdown period and the business churn that followed reshaped EIN filing patterns; high-propensity applications totaled 3,936 through May 2026, up 8.8% from Jan-May 2025. Projected business formations within eight quarters fell 12.0% over the same period.
Metric note: Census BFS counts applications for employer identification numbers. Applications are early filings; confirmed operating-business counts arrive later.
Where applications are concentrated
Flathead is the largest application market by raw volume. It also stands out after population adjustment, so the chart is useful for filing-intensity context but should not be read as a direct operating-business creation rate.
Population adjustment sharpens the Flathead signal.
The chart uses 2025 Census BFS applications divided by Census Vintage 2025 resident population estimates. Flathead leads both the raw filing count and the population-adjusted rate among the high-volume counties shown below. The rate is a filing-location measure, not a confirmed count of new operating businesses.
Metric note: Census BFS counts EIN applications. The denominator is 2025 resident population, not existing businesses, so this is a scale adjustment rather than a startup conversion rate.
| County | 2025 applications | Change vs 2024 | Change vs 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flathead | 8,727 | +19.3% | +272.9% |
| Missoula | 4,030 | +17.7% | +130.8% |
| Gallatin | 3,641 | +8.5% | +63.9% |
| Yellowstone | 3,469 | +11.9% | +95.5% |
| Lewis and Clark | 1,987 | -9.1% | +71.1% |
| Cascade | 1,037 | +11.9% | +75.2% |
Jobs, establishments, and wages
In 2024, Montana had 61,654 private-sector establishments and 426,650 private-sector jobs in the QCEW annual file. Establishments changed 28.7% from 2019 to 2024; jobs changed 10.3%.
Professional services is the establishment-growth story.
Professional services added 4,248 establishments from 2019 to 2024. Construction added 7,326 jobs over the same period.
QCEW tracks employer establishments. It is the recurring source here for jobs, wages, payroll, and local industry structure.
| Industry | 2024 establishments | Change vs 2019 | 2024 jobs | Change vs 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Professional services | 10,446 | +4,248 (+68.5%) | 28,853 | +5,705 (+24.6%) |
| Construction | 7,965 | +1,533 (+23.8%) | 37,240 | +7,326 (+24.5%) |
| Health care and social assistance | 5,236 | +1,038 (+24.7%) | 74,380 | +4,781 (+6.9%) |
| Other services | 4,644 | +491 (+11.8%) | 19,410 | +968 (+5.2%) |
| Administrative services | 4,067 | +1,006 (+32.9%) | 21,620 | +3,417 (+18.8%) |
| Accommodation and food services | 3,964 | +330 (+9.1%) | 60,313 | +5,717 (+10.5%) |
| Wholesale trade | 3,416 | +649 (+23.5%) | 19,104 | +1,915 (+11.1%) |
| Finance and insurance | 2,999 | +812 (+37.1%) | 16,970 | +877 (+5.4%) |
| Real estate and rental | 2,461 | +334 (+15.7%) | 6,689 | +583 (+9.5%) |
| Arts and entertainment | 1,630 | +211 (+14.9%) | 12,989 | +577 (+4.6%) |
SBA lending
SBA 7(a) and 504 approvals to Montana businesses totaled $178.5M in FY2025 across 317 loans. The SBA files report 2,621 jobs supported for those approvals.
Retail trade drew the most SBA capital.
Retail trade drew $38.2M in FY2025 SBA approvals. accommodation and food services, construction, professional services, and Real estate and rental also ranked among the top capital destinations.
SBA fiscal year 2025 ran from Oct. 1, 2024, through Sept. 30, 2025. The source package was current as of April 28, 2026.
| Sector | FY2025 loans | FY2025 approvals | SBA jobs supported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail trade | 49 | $38.2M | 584 |
| Accommodation and food services | 49 | $33.1M | 628 |
| Construction | 51 | $21.4M | 324 |
| Professional services | 33 | $17.8M | 136 |
| Real estate and rental | 14 | $13.9M | 81 |
| Manufacturing | 13 | $12.3M | 124 |
| Other services | 31 | $11.9M | 152 |
| Health care and social assistance | 23 | $8.4M | 235 |
| Transportation and warehousing | 7 | $8.0M | 67 |
| Administrative services | 25 | $5.1M | 184 |
| County | FY2025 loans | FY2025 approvals | SBA jobs supported |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yellowstone | 59 | $40.2M | 500 |
| Gallatin | 63 | $39.5M | 682 |
| Flathead | 42 | $24.5M | 267 |
| Missoula | 32 | $14.6M | 368 |
| Ravalli | 16 | $10.4M | 76 |
| Lewis And Clark | 27 | $9.7M | 207 |
| Cascade | 28 | $8.0M | 171 |
| Lake | 14 | $6.9M | 139 |
| Silver Bow | 5 | $5.0M | 40 |
| Jefferson | 2 | $4.1M | 14 |
The unincorporated business economy
IRS SOI data show 114,540 Montana Schedules C and partnership returns/forms in Tax Year 2023. Those businesses reported $15.3B in gross receipts and $2.3B in the combined income/profit measure.
Sole proprietors account for most returns.
Montana had 93,909 nonfarm sole-proprietor Schedules C in Tax Year 2023, with $6.2B in gross receipts and $1.3B in net profit.
Partnerships reported more gross receipts.
Montana partnerships filed 20,631 Forms 1065 in Tax Year 2023 and reported $9.1B in gross receipts.
| County | Returns/forms | Gross receipts | Combined income/profit metric |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gallatin | 17,947 | $3.2B | $390.0M |
| Flathead | 15,137 | $1.8B | $278.2M |
| Yellowstone | 14,670 | $2.1B | $553.5M |
| Missoula | 13,543 | $1.5B | $249.2M |
| Lewis And Clark | 6,949 | $726.3M | $137.6M |
| Cascade | 5,793 | $1.2B | $102.3M |
| Ravalli | 5,625 | $478.1M | $103.9M |
| Lake | 2,950 | $246.4M | $41.9M |
| Silver Bow | 2,905 | $589.4M | $79.8M |
| Park | 2,678 | $271.1M | $28.3M |
Business stress signals
U.S. Courts F-5A shows 46 business bankruptcy cases tied to Montana counties in the 12 months ending March 31, 2026, unchanged from 46 in the prior 12-month period. Chapter 11 cases totaled 12.
County bankruptcy rows can move sharply.
Gallatin had the largest business-bankruptcy count in the latest F-5A table. County bankruptcy rows can move when related business cases are filed in the same venue, so this table works best as a lead for follow-up reporting.
Definition: U.S. Courts classifies debt as business when the debtor is a corporation or partnership, or when business-related debt predominates.
| County | Business cases, 12 months ending Mar. 31, 2026 | Change vs prior 12 months | Chapter 11 cases | All bankruptcy cases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gallatin | 9 | +4 | 1 | 106 |
| Yellowstone | 7 | -2 | 1 | 148 |
| Chouteau | 5 | +5 | 0 | 7 |
| Lake | 5 | +5 | 2 | 20 |
| Fergus | 4 | +3 | 4 | 7 |
| Missoula | 3 | -3 | 0 | 115 |
| Cascade | 3 | +1 | 1 | 93 |
| Jefferson | 3 | +3 | 1 | 8 |
| Flathead | 2 | -5 | 1 | 75 |
| Ravalli | 1 | -1 | 0 | 49 |
National credit backdrop
The 2026 Fed Small Business Credit Survey appendix reported that 94% of U.S. employer firms faced a financial challenge in 2025, 38% applied for financing, and 52% of applicants were fully approved.
Federal contract demand
USAspending reports $2.1B in FY2025 federal procurement obligations to recipients located in Montana. The filter covers procurement awards to MT recipients across award type codes A, B, C, and D.
| NAICS | Federal procurement category | FY2025 obligations |
|---|---|---|
| 236220 | Commercial and Institutional Building Construction | $888.3M |
| 237990 | Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction | $419.9M |
| 481212 | Nonscheduled Chartered Freight Air Transportation | $195.6M |
| 115310 | Support Activities for Forestry | $54.2M |
| 336413 | Other Aircraft Parts and Auxiliary Equipment Manufacturing | $48.1M |
| 541614 | Process, Physical Distribution, and Logistics Consulting Services | $47.9M |
| 541330 | Engineering Services | $36.4M |
| 541715 | Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences (except Nanotechnology and Biotechnology) | $30.8M |
| 335311 | Power, Distribution, and Specialty Transformer Manufacturing | $30.0M |
| 333924 | Industrial Truck, Tractor, Trailer, and Stacker Machinery Manufacturing | $27.6M |
Sources and methodology
The charts and figures on this page come from public source files or APIs. Annual sources use the most recent complete year available; partial-year figures are labeled in the text.
- Census BFS monthly CSV
Updated June 10, 2026, 14:00 GMT - Census BFS county workbook
Updated June 10, 2026, 14:22 GMT - Census county population estimates
Vintage 2025 county resident population estimates - BLS QCEW annual area files
2019 and 2024 annual API files - SBA 7(a)/504 FOIA package
Updated April 28, 2026, 14:42 GMT - IRS SOI Tax Year 2023 unincorporated tables
Tax Year 2023 county combined, sole proprietor state, and partnership state tables - U.S. Courts F-5A bankruptcy XLSX
12 months ending March 31, 2026 - Fed SBCS Main Street Metrics appendix
Last updated March 23, 2026 - USAspending API
FY2025 procurement obligations
Alex Morgan edits public business datasets for SMB Statistics, including Census, BLS, SBA, IRS, U.S. Courts, Fed SBCS, and USAspending files.