What Do the Prefix Numbers on Montana License Plates Mean?

Have you ever wondered what the prefix numbers on Montana license plates mean? Well. here's the answer.

According to the Montana Department of Justice, the prefix numbers on Montana license plates were added to designate the county in which that vehicle was registered.

Modern Montana standard-issue license plates feature an outline of the state of Montana and a bison skull. The outline of the state was first found on the 1933 orange and maroon plate, and the bison skull was first added for a single year in 1938.

Montana also offers a wide variety of alternate license plates. Montana offered its first alternate license plate, the Amateur Radio Operator plate, in 1958.

Now, back to the numbers on Montana license plates and what they mean. Reddit user u/MooseMonkeyMT posted the following infographic on the r/Montana thread on Thursday. From reading the comments on Reddit, it sounds like memorizing all the county names, numbers, and county seats is a part of Montana history curriculum for Junior High School students in the state.

Photo Credit: u/MooseMonkeyMT vi aReddit

A full list of Montana counties and corresponding license plate numbers can be found at mtcounties.org. For Gallatin County, the corresponding license plate number is 6. In Park County, the number you'll find on standard-issue license plates is 49.

Check out the full list below.

License Plate Number/County

1: Silver Bow
2: Cascade
3: Yellowstone
4: Missoula
5: Lewis & Clark
6: Gallatin
7: Flathead
8: Fergus
9: Powder River
10: Carbon
11: Phillips
12: Hill
13: Ravalli
14: Custer
15: Lake
16: Dawson
17: Roosevelt
18: Beaverhead
19: Chouteau
20: Valley
21: Toole
22: Big Horn
23: Musselshell
24: Blaine
25: Madison
26: Pondera
27: Richland
28: Powell
29: Rosebud
30: Deer Lodge
31: Teton
32: Stillwater
33: Treasure
34: Sheridan
35: Sanders
36: Judith Basin
37: Daniels
38: Glacier
39: Fallon
40: Sweet Grass
41: McCone
42: Carter
43: Broadwater
44: Wheatland
45: Prairie
46: Granite
47: Meagher
48: Liberty
49: Park
50: Garfield
51: Jefferson
52: Wibaux
53: Golden Valley
54: Mineral
55: Petroleum
56: Lincoln

To learn more about the history of license plates in Montana, click here.

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Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

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