Billings vs Grand Junction
Metro-area medians — Billings, MT Metro Area vs Grand Junction, CO Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Billings comes out ahead, winning 7 of the 9 clearly-decided measures.
Billings and Grand Junction cost about the same to live in, but Billings households earn about 3% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches further in Billings.
Their widest everyday difference: Billings has the tighter job market — 3.3% unemployment versus 6%.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, Billings leaves you about $602/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Billings for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Cost-adjusted income (pay's real value)
- + Median household income
- + Median rent
- + Median home value
- + Unemployment
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Choose Grand Junction for
- + Bachelor's degree or higher
- + Average commute
More comparisons
Metros closest to Billings and Grand Junction on cost, income, size, and education.
Billings vs Grand Junction — frequently asked
- Is Billings cheaper than Grand Junction?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Billings and Grand Junction metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Billings or Grand Junction?
- Billings has the higher median household income — $77,770 versus $75,231 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 3% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Billings or Grand Junction?
- A paycheck stretches further in Billings. Adjusted for local prices, the median income is worth $83,153 there versus $78,796 in Grand Junction.
- Which has cheaper rent, Billings or Grand Junction?
- Billings has cheaper rent — a median of $1,170/mo versus $1,259/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).