Poll: What are Montanans struggling to afford?

Many Montanans are increasingly struggling to afford healthcare, fuel and groceries, according to a Montana Free Press-Eagleton poll of registered voters conducted in late April and early May. 

Jeffrey Michael, director of the University of Montana’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, explained that inflation is at the top of people’s minds as prices increase and the cost of living remains high. The U.S. consumer price index jumped 3.8% last month from April 2025.

“Housing continues to be expensive, but for the most part has stabilized,” Michael said. “It’s not one of the drivers anymore like it was a few years back. [Inflation] is now driven by other services — fuel, healthcare and groceries being at the top of those lists.” 

Roughly 62% of respondents reported they had some difficulty affording healthcare and medical costs, with respondents ages 45 to 64 reporting the most difficulty. Michael said people in this age range, who are older but don’t yet qualify for Medicare, are often hit with high medical bills, particularly if they are retired or self-employed and purchased health insurance coverage through the federal Affordable Care Act marketplace. Most Montanans who purchased health insurance coverage through the marketplace qualified for a subsidy to help keep their premiums affordable, but enhanced subsidies made available during the pandemic expired at the end of 2025. 

About 61% of respondents reported some level of difficulty affording gas or other transportation costs. The average price of gas in Montana has risen about 64% from $2.78 per gallon in late February to $4.57 per gallon in late May, according to GasBuddy data, and Montanans have noticed. When asked the same question in a previous Montana Free Press-Eagleton poll, conducted in late December and early January, just 34% of respondents reported any difficulty.

Gas prices began rising following the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran that began Feb. 28. The Strait of Hormuz, a waterway off the southern coast of Iran through which 20% of the world’s oil supply traveled, has been effectively closed for months. 

All age groups reported similar challenges affording transportation, as well as groceries and other food, with more than half of respondents noting at least some difficulty paying those bills. 

Fewer respondents, about 44%, reported difficulty affording bills for utilities like electricity or water. Michael said that while costs like utility bills can be significant, they are often more steady and in the background compared to groceries and gasoline, which have seen more dramatic increases recently. 

“It becomes sort of top of mind because these things are taking up more of your budget than in the past,” he said. 

While more than half of respondents reported that housing costs were less of a challenge, that number was likely influenced by the percentage of older homeowners who have paid off their mortgages. About 70% of respondents 65 and older said rent or mortgage costs were not applicable to them or not difficult to afford. 

However, housing costs remain a challenge for younger residents, with nearly a third of respondents 18 to 44 years old reporting that affording their rent or mortgage payment was “very difficult” and an equal measure saying it was “somewhat difficult.”  

That number may seem low given Montana’s housing affordability challenges, and Michael said the poll is likely not capturing where the housing market is “most broken” right now. 

“More young people are struggling to buy that first house and are staying in a rental situation because it’s more affordable,” he said. “They may not have problems affording the rent, continuing to rent, but where housing affordability is hitting them is making it difficult for them to transition out of being a renter into a homeowner.”

Childcare and education costs, including student loans, also mostly affected younger Montanans. Overall, 60% of respondents said they did not have education expenses. About 40% of respondents 18 to 44 years old reported some difficulty affording those costs, compared to 28% of those 45 to 64 and 10% of respondents 65 and older. 

Even more respondents, about 80%, said they didn’t pay for childcare. Nearly a quarter of 18- to 44-year-olds reported at least some difficulty affording childcare, while just 12% of 45- to 64-year-olds and 3% of those 65 and older reported any difficulty. Among respondents who identified as parents of children under 18, 35% said they had some difficulty affording childcare.

Michael said childcare is expensive, but tends to only apply for some people for a relatively short period of time, compared to lifelong expenses like housing or healthcare. Some people with young children may have left work to care for them, making the question of affordability difficult to answer, he said.

While about half of Montanans overall said the cost of living in Montana is a major reason for considering moving out of state, an overwhelming 71% of respondents said they were not at all likely to move out of Montana in the next year, and 19% said they were not too likely to move. Just 7% of respondents said they were at all likely to leave the state, while renters or residents living with family or friends said they were more likely to move than homeowners. Michael said those responses make sense. 

“Where are you going to go?” he said. “You’re going to find most places people would look to move would not necessarily be substantially cheaper than living in Montana.” 

The MTFP–Eagleton poll surveyed registered voters in Montana who were invited by text message to complete an online survey. Data was collected from April 29, 2026, to May 7, 2026.

Participants were recruited using a probability-based method, meaning they were randomly drawn from the state’s registered voter file so every voter had a known chance of being invited. The results were weighted during analysis to reflect the demographics of Montana’s registered voters. The margin of error is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points. You can find more about the methodology here.