Some Columbia Falls numbers from the census
The Wildcat mascot waves to the crowd.
Here’s a few interesting facts and figures on Columbia Falls based on the 2020 census from the U.S. Census Bureau:
Median household income, $48,427
Bachelor’s degree or higher, $25.9%
Total households, 2,318
Total housing units, 2,348
Median age, 41.1
People over 18, 75.9%
People over 65, 13.4%
Children under 18, 24.1%.
Ancestry: German, 26.7%, Irish, 15%, English, 8.3 %, Norwegian, 13.5%, French, 4%, Italian, 2.2%, Scottish, 2.2% and Polish, 0.6%.
97.7% speak English
83.3% are naturalized citizens, while 16.7% are not U.S. citizens.
Columbia Falls is younger than the state, where 18.7% are 65 and older.
Columbia Falls has a high veteran population — 11.1%.
Married couple families have a median income of $66,765 here, but nonfamily households have a median income of just $20,884
The poverty rate in Columbia Falls is 10.3%, with people 65 and over having a rate of 15.5% and children under 18 having a 12% rate.
About 31.5% have a high school degree; 25.6% have some college, no degree, 9.8% have an associate’s degree, 20.1% have a bachelor’s degree and 5.7% have a graduate or professional degree.
About 71.6% work for a private employer, while 12.2% work for local, state or federal governments. Just 3.2% are self employed and 6.4% work for private nonprofits.
Virtually everyone drives to work alone — 86%. About 5.9% work from home. Just 0.7% walk to work and no one reported using public transportation.
The average commute time to work was 20 minutes.
The top job fields were in education and healthcare (17%), retail trade (15%) arts, entertainment and recreation (12.3%). Manufacturing was just 6% — a testament to the shutdown of mills in Columbia Falls over the past 30 years. Only 1.5% held jobs in forestry, fishing, hunting, or agriculture.
The median gross rent was $785, but has likely gone up substantially in the past two years.
The homeownership rate here is 66.1%.
About 9.6% of people have some sort of disability.