Photo: The original uploader was Antandrus at English Wikipedia. · CC BY-SA 3.0Maricopa’s household incomes are lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
Working from home is the commute for 2% of workers, where California as a whole has 17%. 22.4% of residents are in poverty (California 12.0%). Maricopa grades D− for jobs and income and C− for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Maricopa stands out on work
Maricopa’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Maricopa is Bakersfield, 30 miles away as the crow flies. 22% of working residents (64) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
The jobs in Maricopa pay better than its residents’ jobs
86% of the jobs based in Maricopa pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 56% of the jobs Maricopa residents hold. 95% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Maricopa. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
32% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey; with 286 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Maricopa’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Maricopa is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Maricopa’s grade.
Unemployment (13.0%) is left out: Maricopa’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Maricopa could be anywhere from D− to D.
How far it is to work from Maricopa
About 32% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2023.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Mostly health care, schools and offices in Maricopa
460 jobs are based in Maricopa.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Maricopa, 2013 → 2023: 120 → 460. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2023.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Maricopa’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Maricopa
On a workday 261 residents head out to work, 25 work right here, and 435 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,200 people are in Maricopa on a workday afternoon, 17% more than live here.
1.6 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than out.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Who travels to work in Maricopa, and from where
Where Maricopa clocks in
22% of workers
16% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
The trip to work from Maricopa: about 29 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Maricopa workers work from home, vs 17% across California. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 319 commuters (the 2% who work from home are left out). Across California: 79% drive alone, 3% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Most trips from Maricopa start in a car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Maricopa is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Maricopa near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 326 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 5.8% of Maricopa households have no vehicle (California 7.1%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Maricopa’s commuters take a bus or train.
Where Maricopa sits among U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 8 | Castle Hill CA | 1,026 | $250K | 0.2% | 0.0% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 12 | Ladera CA | 1,297 | $236K | 1.5% | 10.7% | 1% | A+ |
| 13 | Acalanes Ridge CA | 1,006 | $181K | 1.5% | 7.7% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,065 | Kettleman City CA | 1,002 | $48K | 31.1% | 10.9% | <1% | D− |
| 3,066 | Georgiana AL | 1,274 | $24K | 24.1% | 9.0% | 6% | D− |
| 3,067 | Maricopa CA | 1,018 | $39K | 22.4% | 13.0% | 9% | D− |
| 3,068 | Olla LA | 1,325 | $30K | 26.8% | 11.7% | 6% | D− |
| 3,069 | Vardaman MS | 1,060 | $38K | 44.2% | 2.8% | 5% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Maricopa, the top three, the last and three more from California.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2023, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Maricopa: questions
What is the median household income in Maricopa?
$39,120 (±$6,105) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $99,122 across California and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Maricopa?
22.4%, against 12.0% across California and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Maricopa?
29 minutes each way on average, against 29 across California and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Maricopa work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Bakersfield (22%, 30 mi), Taft (16%, 5 mi), Los Angeles (3%, 91 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Maricopa walkable?
Maricopa is more walkable than 19% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.3 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Maricopa without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Maricopa, from the people who make the trip.
More of Maricopa
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2023, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.