The Bozeman Daily Chronicle released a story today about Bozeman's economy ranking very high among the country's strongest areas with regards to micropolitan economic growth in the nation with data and ranks provided by POLICOM Corp., an independent Florida-based economic research firm. Montana micropolitan areas ranked are Helena #2, Bozeman #7, Butte #17, and Kalispell #45. To learn more about what defines a micropolitan area and what formulas were used to determine economic strength, please visit POLICOM's website: http://www.policom.com/ 

"The research firm separated 23 statistics into three groups for the study. The groupings are intended to reflect the overall growth in the economy’s size and the people’s standard of living, the economy’s behavior, and negative growth. Statistics used included all workers’ earnings, retail jobs, and welfare assistance." (continue reading)

Click http://www.policom.com/microrank.htm to view/download the full report from POLICOM.