Photo: Royalbroil · CC BY-SA 4.0Household incomes in Malta trail those of 82% of U.S. towns
9.9% of residents live below the poverty line; Montana has 11.5%. Jobs and income earn Malta D; getting around on foot earns it A−. About one in three work in Malta itself; outside it, Whitewater draws the most (7%, 30 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Malta: the gist
A big share show a job far from home
39% 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 ↓
Many jobs in Malta pay little
31% of the jobs based in Malta pay $1,250 a month or less, under $15,000 a year. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Malta are quick
The average trip to work takes 12 minutes, against 19 across Montana. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Montana worker. Time on the road ↓
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 514 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Malta’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Malta is better than 14% of U.S. towns. The poverty rate holds Malta’s grade up; job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 3% of U.S. towns).
Unemployment (0.0%) is left out: Malta’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, Malta could be anywhere from D to C.
How far Malta goes to work
About 39% 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 kinds of work in Malta
599 jobs are based in Malta.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Malta, 2013 → 2023: 773 → 599. 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.
A commute of about 12 minutes in Malta
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Malta workers work from home, vs 13% across Montana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 786 commuters (the 9% who work from home are left out). Across Montana: 81% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Who leaves Malta for work, and who comes in
On a workday 337 residents head out to work, 177 work right here, and 422 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 (1.17 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.
Commuting out of Malta: the destinations
Where Malta clocks in
5% of workers
2% 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.
Malta is more walkable than most U.S. towns, with limited transit
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Malta is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 3.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 6.3% across Montana.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 861 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). 0.0% of Malta households have no vehicle (Montana 4.7%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Malta’s commuters take a bus or train.
Malta is 4,462nd of 5,656 U.S. towns of 1,300 to 2,500 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 | Plandome NY | 1,482 | $250K | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 518 | King Arthur Park MT | 1,992 | $109K | 7.4% | 0.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 609 | Manhattan MT | 2,073 | $88K | 2.9% | 0.0% | 9% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 843 | Big Sky MT | 2,445 | $139K | 4.7% | 1.4% | 68% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,460 | Camp Croft SC | 1,586 | $44K | 29.0% | 11.1% | 3% | D |
| 4,461 | Milan IN | 1,838 | $59K | 15.0% | 3.8% | 7% | D |
| 4,462 | Malta MT | 1,846 | $54K | 9.9% | 0.0% | 34% | D |
| 4,463 | Oquawka Township IL | 1,571 | $55K | 13.5% | 14.7% | 12% | D |
| 4,464 | Greenbush Township MI | 1,317 | $63K | 12.1% | 4.2% | 3% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,656 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Montana.
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?
$54,483 (±$8,005) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $72,509 across Montana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Malta?
9.9%, against 11.5% across Montana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Malta?
12 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Montana and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Malta work?
34% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Whitewater (7%, 30 mi), Billings (5%, 180 mi), Glasgow (2%, 58 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Malta walkable?
Malta is more walkable than 80% of U.S. towns (Walkability A−): an EPA walkability index of 11.1 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Malta without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 0% 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.