Photo: Falkonry at English Wikipedia · Public domainHousehold incomes put Duson near the very bottom of U.S. towns
Measured by household income, Duson is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. 39.3% of residents live below the poverty line; Louisiana has 18.9%. Duson grades D for jobs and income and D for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Duson at work: what stands out
43% of Duson works in Lafayette
196 working residents, 43%, have their main job in Lafayette, 9.8 miles away. That’s far more as work in Duson itself. The commute map ↓
Stores, warehouses and trucking
56% of the jobs in Duson are in trade, transport and utilities, against 21% of the jobs its residents hold. The jobs ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Duson
52% of Duson residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 25% of the jobs based in Duson pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 100% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
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 459 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Duson’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Duson is better than 12% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Duson’s grade up (ahead of 64% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($25,054, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (10.6%) is left out: Duson’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, Duson stays D.
43% of working residents work in Lafayette
Where Duson clocks in
43% of workers
5% of workers
3% 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 kinds of work in Duson
337 jobs are based in Duson.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Duson, 2013 → 2023: 303 → 337. 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 Duson’s own residents hold wherever they work.
A workday in Duson: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 457 residents head out to work, 2 work right here, and 335 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.
0.73 jobs for every working resident, so most people commute 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.
Each way, about 25 minutes from Duson
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Duson workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 359 commuters (the 4% 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.
How far Duson goes to work
About 21% 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 Duson, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Duson is more walkable than 7% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Duson 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 373 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). 15.4% of Duson households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Duson’s commuters take a bus or train.
4,280th of 5,400: where Duson ranks among U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 314 | Paulina LA | 1,785 | $89K | 2.1% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 490 | Sorrento LA | 1,622 | $118K | 8.5% | 3.2% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 513 | Cade LA | 1,710 | $73K | 6.0% | 1.5% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,278 | Mead Township PA | 1,248 | $54K | 13.1% | 1.4% | 5% | D |
| 4,279 | Comer GA | 1,631 | $53K | 23.3% | 3.9% | 5% | D |
| 4,280 | Duson LA | 1,357 | $25K | 39.3% | 10.6% | <1% | D |
| 4,281 | Como MS | 1,064 | $21K | 17.5% | 35.3% | 3% | D |
| 4,282 | Salisbury MO | 1,564 | $65K | 16.9% | 4.5% | 21% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | 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 Duson, the top three, the last and three more from Louisiana.
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 Duson: questions
What is the median household income in Duson?
$25,054 (±$7,407) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Duson?
39.3%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Duson?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Duson work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lafayette (43%, 10 mi), Scott (5%, 6 mi), Broussard (3%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Duson walkable?
Duson is more walkable than 7% of U.S. towns (Walkability D): an EPA walkability index of 5.0 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Duson without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 15% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Duson, from the people who make the trip.
More of Duson
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.