Malta has fewer jobs than working residents: 0.1 for each
69 jobs are based in Malta for 517 working residents. For jobs and income Malta is better than 40% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (C+). Hardly any work in Malta; the top destination outside it is DeKalb (18%, 6 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Malta, in brief
Malta is a place people come home to
There are 69 jobs based in Malta, about one for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Malta has about 690 people in it, 39% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Malta and DeKalb trade workers both ways
DeKalb is the top workplace for Malta residents (18%) and also where the most people who work in Malta come from (23% of its jobs). The commute map ↓
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 517 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Jobs & income in Malta: the grade in detail
Job access by car holds Malta’s grade up (ahead of 63% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (24.0%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income.
Unemployment (2.9%) is left out: Malta’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Malta could be anywhere from C− to A−.
How many people are in Malta by day
On a workday 512 residents head out to work, 5 work right here, and 64 people come in from elsewhere.
About 690 people are in Malta on a workday afternoon, 39% fewer than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
Where people from Malta work
Where Malta clocks in
18% of workers
7% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Malta
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Malta, 2013 → 2023: 45 → 69. 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 Malta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Each way, about 26 minutes from Malta
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Malta workers work from home, vs 16% across Illinois. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 555 commuters (the 12% who work from home are left out). Across Illinois: 78% drive alone, 7% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Half of Malta commutes less than 26 miles
About 17% 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.
Few in Malta walk, bike or ride to work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 10.8% across Illinois, on an EPA index of 4.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 629 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 10.6% of Malta households have no vehicle (Illinois 11.0%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Malta’s commuters take a bus or train.
Among U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, Malta ranks 1,669th of 3,771 on jobs and income
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 21 | Tower Lakes IL | 1,201 | $154K | 2.0% | 2.8% | <1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 23 | Third Lake IL | 1,103 | $150K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 28 | Lily Lake IL | 1,073 | $140K | 0.2% | 8.9% | 0% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,667 | Woodbury Township PA | 1,414 | $77K | 9.7% | 1.5% | 5% | C+ |
| 1,668 | Bashaw WI | 1,080 | $78K | 7.3% | 6.7% | <1% | C+ |
| 1,669 | Malta IL | 1,140 | $81K | 24.0% | 2.9% | 1% | C+ |
| 1,670 | Velva ND | 1,046 | $83K | 8.2% | 1.6% | 16% | C+ |
| 1,671 | New Salem ND | 1,082 | $70K | 6.9% | 2.1% | 15% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | 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 Malta, the top three, the last and three more from Illinois.
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 Malta: questions
What is the median household income in Malta?
$80,625 (±$23,015) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $83,390 across Illinois and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Malta?
24.0%, against 11.8% across Illinois and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Malta?
26 minutes each way on average, against 28 across Illinois and 26 nationally. 12% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Malta work?
1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are DeKalb (18%, 6 mi), Sycamore (11%, 11 mi), Rockford (7%, 25 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Malta walkable?
Malta is more walkable than 41% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Malta without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Malta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Malta
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.