Hey UM students — welcome to Missoula, or welcome back. Classes start the 27th, we hear, so you’ll be neck-deep in it soon. But before you disappear with your head in a book, or whatever students stick their heads in these days, take a day or two to get your bearings in the larger Missoula ecosystem of which campus is just a part. To help you do that, this issue of the Indy includes our annual Fresh Facts supplement, which should probably be required reading for Missoula newbies. And then there’s the feature right here in your hands, wherein we offer a statistical breakdown of the town you call home, whether you just got here, or have been around awhile. Give it a glance, get your bearings, and get involved. We’ll see you out there.
Percentage of housing in Missoula built before 1980: 60
Percentage of Missoula households that moved into their current home before 1980: 5
Percentage of Missoulians who have lived at their current address for less than five years: 46
Hours a minimum-wage worker in Missoula County has to work each week to afford a 2-bedroom home at fair market rent: 81
Median age of a Missoula city resident, in years: 32.5
Of a Helena resident: 41.6
Rides on the Mountain Line bus system in 2016: 1,562,120
Rideshare drivers in Missoula in 2016: 57
Rideshare drivers in Missoula in 2015: 4
Miles of Missoula road under construction in 2018: 21.97
Motor vehicles currently registered in Missoula County: 188,756
Bicycles registered with the city of Missoula since 1981: 21,445
Dogs registered in Missoula County: 17,022
Percentage that are labradors: 20
Number of labradors registered in Missoula County named Coldsmoke: 1
Number of dogs registered in Missoula County named Bella: 162
Available Missoula-area rentals, of 137 posted on Rentals.com, that allow dogs: 44
Cases of dog-poo bags purchased by the city annually: 280
Purchase cost to the city of the municipal water utility: $88.6 million
Legal bill associated with the acquisition: $9.1 million. So far.
Cost of a liquor license in Missoula: $700,000
Cost of a liquor license in Spokane: $2,000 for a restaurant or nightclub
Cost, per person, of a trip through Missoula on Lewis & Clark Trail Adventures’ new River Pub raft: $67
Minimum price of a one-night stay at the Paws Up Resort during the winter months: $650
During the summer months: $906
Capacity of the Poverello Center during the winter months: 175
During the summer months: 150
Homeless men evacuated from an island downstream of Reserve Street during 2018 flooding of the Clark Fork: 9
Licensed vacation rentals in Missoula: 70
Unoccupied beds in University of Montana dormitories last year: 546
Number of graduates of the University of Montana’s creative writing program that have won Pulitzer Prizes: 3
Average starting salary for University of Montana creative writing MFA graduates finding work in Montana, 2010–2016: $19,032
Average salary for a University of Montana professor who teaches in the program full time: $83,814
Tax revenue generated by Missoula video gambling in the fourth quarter of 2018: $1,345,979
Number of permitted video gambling machines in Missoula in that same quarter: 1,096
Video gambling machine state taxes collected in Missoula County in 2018: $5.2 million
Farmers markets within 50 miles of Missoula: 12
Households served last year by the Missoula Food Bank: 6,636
Number of Missoula County trailer parks in 1998: 191
Number of Missoula County trailer parks in 2018: 170
Amount raised in 2017–2018 by a GoFundMe campaign to help relocate residents of Skyview Trailer Park: $2,720
Donations received in 2017 by local nonprofit AniMeals to help cats: $446,627
Campaign finance complaints stemming from Missoula’s 2017 mayoral election: 4
Pabst Blue Ribbon sold in Missoula in June 2018, in gallons: 16,200
KettleHouse Cold Smoke sold in June 2018, in gallons: 15,996
Daily capacity of KettleHouse Brewing Company’s on-site wastewater treatment plant at its production facility in Bonner, in gallons: 15,000
Missoula Osprey baseball players who have gone on to the major leagues since 1999: 67
University of Montana football players who have gone on to the NFL since 1999: 57
Baguettes baked by Le Petite Outre bakery daily: 600 to 800, depending on demand
Current weight of Jethro, the shop cat at Betty’s Divine, in pounds: 22
Cost of the Portland Loo public toilet at the Missoula Art Museum’s art park: $105,000
Cost of George Ybarra’s “Perseverance and Passage,” a 28-foot-tall sculpture in Silver Park: $45,000
Total 2017 tax bill for the Hyperblock/Project Spokane bitcoin mine in Bonner, as estimated by the company: $300,543
Tax bill in bitcoin as of the May 23, 2018 estimate: 39.9
As of Aug. 21: 46.7
Hyperblock/Project Spokane bitcoin mine employees, as estimated by the company: 25
Missoula pizza joints that accept bitcoin as payment: 2
Sales at Lake Missoula Tea Company made using bitcoin before the store discontinued the payment option: 1
Starting salary of a customer service representative at ClassPass, a company that makes gym membership convenient: “around $30,000”
Starting salary of a teacher in the Missoula Public School District: $37,067
Cost of popcorn (one size) at the new AMC 9 Dine-In theater: $8.69
Cost of popcorn (one size) at the Roxy Theater: $5
Number of video rental stores in Missoula: 0
Number of escape rooms: 1
Number of City Council members wearing blazers or suits at the Aug. 13 meeting: 2
Number who were knitting: 1
Number of personal ads in the Aug. 27, 1998, issue of the Independent: 76
Tinder profile pictures of women seeking men, out of a random Aug. 21, 2018 sample of 100, featuring a dog: 9
Featuring a fish: 0
People who attended the 4-0-Sex Club’s “Swingers Prom” party in Missoula on Dec. 30, 2017: 50
Percentage of Missoulians who live with a nonfamily roommate: 14.5
Percentage of Missoula law enforcement, architecture and engineering workers who are women: 14
Percentage of Missoula social services workers who are women: 79
Number of medical marijuana cardholders in Missoula County in July 2018: 3,138
In Gallatin County: 4,529
In Flathead County: 2,672
Resident season fishing licenses issued by Missoula license providers in 2017: 17,965
Resident and non-resident bow hunting licenses issued by Missoula license providers in 2017: 4,126
Number of sheep used by the city for weed control in the North Hills in 2018: 72
Number of elk counted on Mount Jumbo in spring 2018: 93
Worst single-day concentration of particulate matter 10 microns or smaller (PM10) during the 2017 wildfire season: 233 micrograms per cubic meter of air
Worst single-day PM10 concentration in winter 1986, when residential wood-burning was still permitted: 238 micrograms per cubic meter of air.
MBPC is a nonprofit organization focused on providing credible and timely research and analysis on budget, tax, and economic issues that impact low- and moderate-income Montana families.