Montana Facts

*Montana is the 4th largest state in the nation, yet its population is just 917,621

*Number of electoral votes: three

*Montana is 90 percent white, six percent Native American and 0.3 percent African American

*Montana has one area-code: 406

*46 out of Montana's 56 counties are considered "frontier counties" with an average population of six or fewer people per square mile

*No state has as many different species of mammals as Montana

*Yellowstone National Park in southern Montana and northern Wyoming was the first national park in the nation

*Montana's name comes from the Spanish word mountainous

*Montana is one of only fives states without a sales tax

*The unemployment rate in Montana is currently 4.4 percent

*Montana's wages rank last with an average salary of $27,833 -- the national average is $39,348

*White and Native American women in Montana earn about 67 cents for every dollar earned by a man, while Hispanic women earn even less -- 60 cents

*Approximately 41 percent of Native American women live in poverty in Montana

*There are no women in Montana's delegation to the 107th Congress. Montana has sent only one woman to the U.S. Congress, the first woman ever to serve in 1916. Rep. Jeannette Rankin completed her first term of office before most women could legally vote.

*Women in Montana are among the least likely to own a business and the most likely to live in poverty in the nation

*Montana was one of the 35 states that ratified the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution

*Montana has a higher proportion of people in their 40s and 50s than the nation as a whole, and a lower proportion of the population in their 30s

*Ninety-one percent of Montana's residents have a high school diploma, the second highest percentage in the nation

*Montana's women are more likely to have college degrees than women in the rest of the country

*Montana provides public funding for abortions, one of only 15 states that do so

*Nearly one of every three births in Montana is to an unmarried mother - this statistic has steadily risen from 25 percent in 1994 to the current level of 31 percent

Sources: 50states.com, US Census, Montana Department of Labor & Industry, Travel Montana Institute for Women's Policy Research, Women's Foundation of Montana