The city where the median American lives has over four times as many people as the entire state of Montana. The reason for emphasizing this is that dense urban settlements, in general, are economically more productive. Transportation and communication costs are lower. There are more specialized businesses available to provide other businesses with goods and services. The labor pool is larger and more diverse.
Entrepreneurial opportunities are greater.
Of course, that is the reason that so much of the nation s economic activity and population are concentrated in the large urban belts on the East Coast, Great Lakes region, and West Coast and now along Colorado s front range and Utah s Wasatch Front. In a recent economic study, Montana had the lowest economic density of all the states. To Montana residents none of this is likely to come as a surprise. Many of us reside here because of that rural character and those small cities and towns. We are a throw back to a previous era of rural and small town lifestyles.