West Bridge · Photo: McGhiever · CC BY-SA 4.0Jobs, pay and the trip to work in Madelia
About one in three work in Madelia itself; outside it, Mankato draws the most (11%, 24 miles). For jobs and income Madelia is better than 41% of U.S. towns (C+); for walkability it is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (A). 7% of workers work from home; Minnesota has 18%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What the numbers say about work in Madelia
Madelia makes and builds things
43% of the jobs based in Madelia are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Madelia residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 37%. The jobs ↓
Madelia’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Madelia is Mankato, 24 miles away as the crow flies. 11% of working residents (118) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. 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.
Breaking down the Jobs & income grade for Madelia
Unemployment holds Madelia’s grade up (3.7%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down (13.7%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Madelia could be anywhere from C− to B+.
Making and building: 43% of jobs based in Madelia
1,220 jobs are based in Madelia.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Madelia, 2013 → 2023: 912 → 1,220. 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 Madelia’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far it is to work from Madelia
About 16% 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.
The daily flow of workers through Madelia
On a workday 718 residents head out to work, 340 work right here, and 880 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.15 per resident).
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 Madelia’s working residents head each day
Where Madelia clocks in
11% of workers
10% of workers
6% 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.
A commute of about 27 minutes in Madelia
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Madelia workers work from home, vs 18% across Minnesota. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 995 commuters (the 7% who work from home are left out). Across Minnesota: 84% drive alone, 2% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Good to walk, short on transit: Madelia
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 10.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 5.7% across Minnesota, on an EPA index of 8.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,067 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). 7.9% of Madelia households have no vehicle (Minnesota 6.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Madelia’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 5,401 U.S. towns of 1,700 to 3,400, Madelia comes 2,912th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 19 | Greenfield MN | 2,962 | $154K | 1.2% | 0.4% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 24 | Empire MN | 3,063 | $148K | 1.9% | 0.5% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 37 | May Township MN | 2,638 | $137K | 2.0% | 0.7% | 4% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,910 | Whitehall Township MI | 1,798 | $79K | 13.3% | 6.8% | 2% | C+ |
| 2,911 | Arcadia Township MI | 3,174 | $80K | 11.0% | 4.0% | 3% | C+ |
| 2,912 | Madelia MN | 2,488 | $77K | 13.7% | 3.7% | 32% | C+ |
| 2,913 | New Madrid MO | 2,586 | $58K | 12.3% | 0.7% | 27% | C+ |
| 2,914 | Lowe Township IL | 1,754 | $85K | 12.6% | 3.7% | 11% | C+ |
| … | |||||||
| 5,401 | Lame Deer MT | 1,872 | $24K | 55.8% | 42.2% | 60% | 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 Madelia, the top three, the last and three more from Minnesota.
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 Madelia: questions
What is the median household income in Madelia?
$76,548 (±$8,978) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $89,062 across Minnesota and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Madelia?
13.7%, against 9.3% across Minnesota and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Madelia?
27 minutes each way on average, against 23 across Minnesota and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Madelia work?
32% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Mankato (11%, 24 mi), St. James (10%, 11 mi), New Ulm (6%, 18 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Madelia walkable?
Madelia is more walkable than 88% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 8.4 out of 20, and 11% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Madelia without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Madelia, from the people who make the trip.
More of Madelia
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.