6,078 people (2024 Census estimate, +3.4% since 2020)
1,625 square miles of land · 4 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
10 active community water systems list Pondera County in the area they serve, reporting 4,564 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| CONRAD WATER DEPT surface water · local government · MT0000186 | 2,500 served |
| TIBER COUNTY WATER DISTRICT surface water · local government · MT0000400 | 750 served |
| VALIER TOWN OF groundwater · local government · MT0000351 | 452 served |
| BRADY COUNTY WATER SEWER DISTRICT buys surface water · local government · MT0000164 | 144 served |
| NCMRWA PONDERA CO SERVICE AREA buys surface water · local government · MT0004834 | 144 served |
| NEW MIAMI COLONY groundwater · private · MT0001914 | 130 served |
| BIRCH CREEK COLONY groundwater · private · MT0001781 | 120 served |
| KINGSBURY COLONY groundwater · private · MT0002031 | 120 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 8 people were held in Pondera County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2019), or 227 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2014 it was about 4.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
7 school districts have their office in Pondera County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $5 million — $4.8 million to run schools, about $13,892 per student, plus $148,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $1.6 million local (mostly property tax), $2.1 million state, $1.7 million federal. Long-term debt: $886,000.
Spent $7 million — $6.2 million to run schools, about $29,918 per student, plus $711,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $676,000 local (mostly property tax), $2 million state, $3.5 million federal.
Spent $2.4 million — $2.3 million to run schools, about $14,817 per student, plus $80,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $1.4 million local (mostly property tax), $1.3 million state, $15,000 federal. Long-term debt: $1.6 million.
Spent $2.1 million — $1.8 million to run schools, about $14,492 per student, plus $318,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $839,000 local (mostly property tax), $748,000 state, $517,000 federal.
Spent $1.3 million — $1.2 million to run schools, about $25,043 per student, plus $171,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $712,000 local (mostly property tax), $567,000 state, $248,000 federal. Long-term debt: $2,000.
Spent $344,000 — $344,000 to run schools, about $10,118 per student. Money in: $42,000 local (mostly property tax), $210,000 state, $111,000 federal.
Spent $351,000 — $288,000 to run schools, about $13,714 per student, plus $59,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $69,000 local (mostly property tax), $109,000 state, $183,000 federal.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Very Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Pondera County about $5.3 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively Moderate; social vulnerability: Very High.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
96 bridges in Pondera County: 49 in good condition, 43 fair, and 4 poor (4.2%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| IRR - US 89 over BLACKTAIL CREEK · built 1965 | 1,012 vehicles a day |
| S 21 over INT MIDWAY I 15 · built 1972 | 540 vehicles a day |
| IRR - S 358 over TWO MEDICINE RIVER · built 1968 | 243 vehicles a day |
| SOLLID RD over DRAINAGE · built 1973 | 16 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $11.9 million of work in Pondera County in fiscal 2025, about $2,020 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for Montana are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Pondera County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Pondera County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Montana: the state government and every county in Montana.
Nearby counties: Teton County (28 mi) · Toole County (36 mi) · Glacier County (48 mi) · Liberty County (59 mi) · Cascade County (75 mi) · Lewis and Clark County (77 mi).