News

Montana Department of Commerce Releases County Population Projections Through 2060

The Census and Economic Information Center (CEIC) within the Montana Department of Commerce today released population projections through 2060 for Montana’s individual counties. Demographic forecasts are available for both the county as a whole and by gender and age group.

Baseline projections are provided for each of Montana’s 56 counties, however multiple scenarios are provided for some counties. The baseline projections are produced by eREMI – a product of Regional Economic Models, Inc. (REMI).

With the Bakken oil development in the east, growing cities in the center, and mountain vistas in the west, Montana’s counties are diverse, and, consequently, our future populations are developing differently.

"These population projections are invaluable to our communities for the purpose of planning and developing policies as well as understanding regional growth," said Meg O’Leary, Director of the Montana Department of Commerce. "Through this information, policymakers and planners will gain a better understanding of Montana’s regional growth and needs far into the future."

Due to uncertainty in the Bakken development, CEIC has estimated two additional projection scenarios for sixteen eastern Montana counties. The information will be valuable to decision makers addressing both the opportunities and challenges created by the oil development affecting Eastern Montana. These scenarios incorporate a part of the extensive work done by the Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) who used REMI’s PI+ model to study the impact of potential Bakken oil development on the region as a whole.

"The two additional projections allocate to each of the sixteen counties the potential regional effects the MDT model forecasts if more aggressive oil development and accelerated production occurs," said Joe Ramler, Senior Economist for CEIC.

The projections and methodology used to incorporate the various Bakken development scenarios are available on the CEIC website http://ceic.mt.gov/Population/PopProjectionsTitlePage.aspx.

Posted in:

Sorry, we couldn't find any posts. Please try a different search.

Leave a Comment

You must be logged in to post a comment.