Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Coushatta earn less than in almost any other U.S. town
Measured by household income, Coushatta is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. Below the poverty line: 34.6% of residents, next to 18.9% for Louisiana as a whole. Jobs and income earn Coushatta D−; getting around on foot earns it B−.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Coushatta apart on work
Coushatta’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Coushatta is Shreveport, 40 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (77) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Coushatta is where the jobs are
Coushatta has 1,302 jobs, 2.1 for every working resident. On a workday afternoon about 2,300 people are in town, 41% more than the 1,600 who live here. Day and night ↓
The biggest group of Coushatta’s workers comes from Shreveport
80 of the people who work in Coushatta live in Shreveport, 40 miles away, more than from any other town. 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 635 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
How Coushatta earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Coushatta is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Coushatta’s grade up (ahead of 19% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($31,250, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.4%) is left out: Coushatta’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Coushatta stays D−.
How far Coushatta’s workers travel
About 25% 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.
In and out of Coushatta on a workday
On a workday 498 residents head out to work, 137 work right here, and 1,165 people come in from elsewhere.
About 2,300 people are in Coushatta on a workday afternoon, 41% more than live here.
2.1 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.
Where Coushatta’s workforce comes from
Where Coushatta clocks in
12% of workers
7% of workers
4% 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.
Inside Coushatta’s 1,302 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Coushatta, 2013 → 2023: 1,215 → 1,302. 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 Coushatta’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 16 minutes each way, quicker than most of Louisiana
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Coushatta workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 623 commuters (the 6% who work from home are left out). Across Louisiana: 85% 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.
Coushatta is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Coushatta is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.3% across Louisiana.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 664 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). 30.9% of Coushatta households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Coushatta’s commuters take a bus or train.
Coushatta next to U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Bayou Gauche LA | 1,908 | $163K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 265 | Montz LA | 2,074 | $92K | 4.7% | 0.2% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 387 | Presquille LA | 2,062 | $112K | 1.1% | 14.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 5,935 | Rochelle GA | 1,146 | $42K | 23.8% | 4.3% | 8% | D− |
| 5,936 | Mount Vernon GA | 1,925 | $33K | 38.8% | 15.1% | 3% | D− |
| 5,937 | Coushatta LA | 1,623 | $31K | 34.6% | 2.4% | 22% | D− |
| 5,938 | Hurley NM | 1,211 | $36K | 17.7% | 3.4% | 3% | D− |
| 5,939 | Carnegie OK | 1,366 | $44K | 21.6% | 5.0% | 29% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | 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 Coushatta, the top three, the last and three more from Louisiana.
Work in the towns next to Coushatta
The biggest share goes to Edgefield (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Coushatta workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coushatta | – | D− | B− | 16 min | $31,250 |
| Edgefield | 2% | — | — | 22 min | — |
Same-state neighbors only. Edgefield: fewer than 1,000 residents, not graded. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
Darker towns draw more of Coushatta’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Coushatta: questions
What is the median household income in Coushatta?
$31,250 (±$11,687) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Coushatta?
34.6%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Coushatta?
16 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 6% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Coushatta work?
22% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Shreveport (12%, 40 mi), Natchitoches (7%, 24 mi), Bossier City (4%, 39 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Coushatta walkable?
Coushatta is more walkable than 48% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.5 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Coushatta without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 31% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Coushatta, from the people who make the trip.
More of Coushatta
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.