How this list was compiled: Items made on 2026-09-26; names, ids and accepted spellings are Natural Earth's. Licence: public domain (work of the United States government, 17 U.S.C. 105): https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/data/tiger/tgrshp2023/TGRSHP2023_TechDoc_Ch1.pdf; public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
The drawing: Drawn for this site from U.S. Census Bureau 2023 cartographic boundary file cb_2023_us_county_5m (scale 1:5,000,000), https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2023/shp/cb_2023_us_county_5m.zip, downloaded 2026-09-19. Surrounding land from U.S. Census Bureau 2023 cartographic boundary file cb_2023_us_state_5m (scale 1:5,000,000), https://www2.census.gov/geo/tiger/GENZ2023/shp/cb_2023_us_state_5m.zip, downloaded 2026-09-19 and from Natural Earth 5.1.2, ne_10m_admin_0_countries_lakes (scale 1:10,000,000), https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvkelso/natural-earth-vector/v5.1.2/geojson/ne_10m_admin_0_countries_lakes.geojson, downloaded 2026-09-19. Albers equal-area conic projection, central meridian 110.8°W, standard parallels 45.1°N and 48.2°N. Outlines simplified; small islands are left out. Licence: public domain (work of the United States government, 17 U.S.C. 105): https://www2.census.gov/geo/pdfs/maps-data/data/tiger/tgrshp2023/TGRSHP2023_TechDoc_Ch1.pdf; public domain (Natural Earth terms of use: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/)
How it works
This Montana outline map shows all 56 counties of Montana, from Beaverhead to Yellowstone, with Helena, the capital, in Lewis and Clark County; with Borders off it prints the plain outline.
Read the full guide
Blank, numbered or named
Blank prints the 56 shapes with nothing written; Numbered puts 1 on Beaverhead and 56 on Yellowstone, in alphabetical order; Named prints every name, and Print the answer key gives the list.
Montana on the map
Beaverhead County, in the south-west, is the largest county. Silver Bow and Deer Lodge, the two smallest, are consolidated city-counties. Its neighbors, Idaho, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota and Canada, are drawn around it without numbers.
Mark the Continental Divide as a class, then label the counties on each side.
Questions and answers
How many counties does Montana have?
Fifty-six in the Census Bureau count, from Beaverhead County to Yellowstone County in alphabetical order.
What county is Helena in?
Helena stands in Lewis and Clark County, which is number 25 on the numbered sheet. Have students find it first and write Helena beside it.
Which is the largest county in Montana?
Beaverhead County, in the south-west on the Idaho border. Yellowstone County, around Billings, has the most people.
Which county of Montana has the most people?
Yellowstone County, around Billings, has more people than any other county in Montana, while the capital, Helena, is in Lewis and Clark County.