Households in Erath earn less than those in 90% of U.S. towns
Only 4% work in Erath; the top destination outside it is Lafayette (19%, 17 miles). Poverty touches 17.5% of residents, against 18.9% across Louisiana. Erath grades C− for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Getting to work from Erath, in brief
Erath’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty and job access, Erath is better than 23% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Erath’s grade up (ahead of 62% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($47,568, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (4.2%) is left out: Erath’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, Erath could be anywhere from C− to C+.
Inside Erath’s 312 jobs
312 jobs are based in Erath.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Erath, 2013 → 2023: 249 → 312. 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 Erath’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Erath on a workday afternoon
On a workday 737 residents head out to work, 33 work right here, and 279 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,500 people are in Erath on a workday afternoon, 24% fewer than live here.
0.41 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.
Where Erath goes to work
Where Erath clocks in
19% 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.
The trip to work from Erath: about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Erath workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 838 commuters (the 7% 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 it is to work from Erath
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.
Driving is how Erath gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Erath is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: hardly any 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 901 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). 15.6% of Erath households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Erath’s commuters take a bus or train.
Erath is 3,646th of 5,234 U.S. towns of 1,400 to 2,600 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 43 | Bayou Gauche LA | 1,908 | $163K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 243 | Montz LA | 2,074 | $92K | 4.7% | 0.2% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 382 | Des Allemands LA | 2,382 | $88K | 2.4% | 2.5% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 3,644 | Long Neck DE | 2,161 | $57K | 10.2% | 1.9% | 7% | C− |
| 3,645 | Midway South TX | 2,308 | $54K | 24.5% | 6.5% | 0% | C− |
| 3,646 | Erath LA | 1,932 | $48K | 17.5% | 4.2% | 4% | C− |
| 3,647 | Van Buren Township IN | 1,819 | $56K | 14.7% | 1.8% | 4% | C− |
| 3,648 | Hamilton Township IN | 1,594 | $59K | 12.3% | 4.0% | 6% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,234 | 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 Erath, the top three, the last and three more from Louisiana.
How Erath compares with the towns next door
The biggest share goes to Delcambre (2%).
Jobs & commute next door
Darker towns draw more of Erath’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 Erath: questions
What is the median household income in Erath?
$47,568 (±$8,244) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Erath?
17.5%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Erath?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Erath work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lafayette (19%, 17 mi), Abbeville (14%, 6 mi), New Iberia (6%, 13 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Erath walkable?
Erath is more walkable than 27% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Erath without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Erath, from the people who make the trip.
More of Erath
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.