Market & District Information

The Bitter Root Economic Development District is comprised of three counties covering 6,212 square miles. The district’s counties Mineral, Missoula and Ravalli, are located in west central Montana, bounded the Flathead Indian Reservation on the north, the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness and Idaho on the west, and the Sapphire Mountains and the Bob Marshall Wilderness on the east and south. Elevation is lowest where the Clark Fork River leaves Mineral County, with Trapper Peak in southern Ravalli County the highest point at 10,157 feet above sea level.

About 15 percent of the state’s population is found in the three counties, with the city of Missoula having a population of 66,851. Ravalli County is rural and agricultural with its largest town Hamilton having a population of 4783. Mineral County has a very low population with most of its land held by the USDA Forest Service. Its largest community, Superior has a population of 1085.

Missoula is the center of a multi-county trade area, which extends toward Butte, toward the Flathead region and into the Salmon area of Idaho to the south. Interstate 90 runs through both Mineral and Missoula counties and brings tourism and a most of the area’s retail goods. Montana Rail Link follows the Interstate and the Missoula International Airport is the primary air link for all three counties.

The region hosts some of the tourism between Yellowstone and Glacier parks and into the Flathead Lake area. A large percentage of those going into the Bitterroot-Selway, Bob Marshall and Anaconda-Pintlar wilderness areas enter from the three counties.

Socio-economic Information

Montana Means Business

The Governor’s Office of Economic Development’s website, Montana Means Business, provides many of Esri’s Business Analyst Online market and demographic reports free for the Montana business community. Published below are the Market Profile Reports, the Tapestry Segmentation Area Profile and the Graphic Profile. Additional market and business information is available at the Montana Means Business website. If you would like to learn more about the reports on this website or get assistance with customizing this information please give BREDD a call at 406-258-3435.

Market Profile Reports

The Market Profile report provides an overview of key demographic attributes and consumer spending patterns for a specified area. Use this report in the evaluation process for site selection, market analysis, and trend evaluation. Market Profiles use U.S. Census Bureau, Esri forecasts, consumer expenditure data, and Bureau of Labor Statistics data compiled into an easy to read document.

Graphic Profile

The Graphic Profile report consists of colorful, easy-to-understand pie charts and graphs that provide an illustrated overview of current-year demographic estimates for a specified area.

Tapestry Segmentation Area Profile

This report compares the top 20 Tapestry segments in a specified area, ranked by household percentage compared to the national counterpart. The Tapestry Segmentation system classifies U.S. neighborhoods into 65 distinctive market segments based on their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. This information is useful for any business or public entity who needs to understand the distinct characteristics of our communities.

Economic Profile Systems

Headwaters Economics of Bozeman, Montana say that their Economic Profile System (EPS) is designed to allow users to produce detailed socioeconomic profiles automatically and efficiently at a variety of geographic scales using Microsoft Excel. Profiles contain tables and figures that illustrate long-term trends in population; employment and personal income by industry; average earnings; business development; retirement and other non-labor income; commuting patterns; agriculture; and earnings by industry. Headwaters Economic uses data from the US Census Bureau County Business Patterns, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other well known sources.

BREDD will provide recent reports for each county and an aggregate of the region. For most recent reports or to obtain these reports in excel format please visit Headwaters Economics or contact BREDD.

Missoula’s Best Place Project/ Missoula Economic Partnership reports

In May 2010, Mayor John Engen and his Best Place Project team hired Garner Economics and National Community Development Services, Inc. to analyze Missoula’s economic climate and gauge its leaders’ interest in a strong public-private partnership that recruits businesses, retains existing businesses and redevelops facilities and infrastructure that supports businesses in Missoula. The reports can be viewed at the City of Missoula’s website.