Editing Montana (section)

===Cities and towns===
{{See also|List of cities and towns in Montana|List of counties in Montana}}
[[File:Missoula Skyline.png|thumb|Missoula, the second-largest city in Montana]]

Montana has 56 [[County#United States|counties]] and a total of 364 [[Place (United States Census Bureau)|"places"]] as defined by the [[United States Census Bureau]]; the latter comprising 129 [[Place (United States Census Bureau)#Incorporated place|incorporated places]] and 235 [[census-designated place]]s. The incorporated places are made up of 52 cities, 75 towns, and two [[Consolidated city–county|consolidated city-counties]].{{sfn|Census Bureau|2012}}

Montana has one city, [[Billings, Montana|Billings]], with a population over 100,000; and three cities with populations over 50,000: [[Missoula, Montana|Missoula]], [[Great Falls, Montana|Great Falls]] and [[Bozeman, Montana|Bozeman]]. The state also has five [[United States Micropolitan Statistical Area|Micropolitan Statistical Areas]], centered on [[Bozeman, Montana|Bozeman]], [[Butte-Silver Bow, Montana|Butte]], [[Helena, Montana|Helena]], [[Kalispell, Montana|Kalispell]] and [[Havre, Montana|Havre]].{{sfn|Core Based Statistical Area|2010}}

Collectively all of these areas (excluding Havre) are known informally as the "big seven", as they are consistently the seven largest communities in the state (their rank order in terms of population is Billings, Missoula, Great Falls, Bozeman, Butte, Helena and Kalispell, according to the 2010 U.S. census).{{sfn|KRTV|2010}} Based on 2013 census numbers, they contain 35 percent of Montana's population,{{sfn|Montana Setting|2013}} and the counties in which they are located are home to 62 percent of the state's population.{{sfn|Swanson|2004}}

The geographic [[center of population]] of Montana is in sparsely populated [[Meagher County, Montana|Meagher County]], in the town of [[White Sulphur Springs, Montana|White Sulphur Springs]].