Photo: Z28scrambler · CC BY-SA 3.0Eunice’s household incomes are lower than in 98% of U.S. towns
About one in four work in Eunice itself; outside it, Lafayette draws the most (8%, 30 miles). Below the poverty line: 33.2% of residents, against 18.9% across Louisiana. Jobs and income earn Eunice D; getting around on foot earns it A.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Eunice at work: what stands out
Eunice trades workers with the towns around it
Eunice has about as many jobs (3,527) as working residents (3,905), but they are mostly different people: 2,854 residents leave for work each day while 2,476 people come in. Only 30% of the jobs in Eunice are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Eunice’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Eunice is Lafayette, 30 miles away as the crow flies. 8% of working residents (322) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Fewer than half of Eunice workers earn over $40,000 a year
41% of Eunice’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 18% earn $1,250 a month or less. 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.
Eunice’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Eunice is better than 6% of U.S. towns, #141 of 161 in Louisiana. Job access by car holds Eunice’s grade up (ahead of 44% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($35,436, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Eunice could be anywhere from D− to C−.
Eunice on a workday afternoon
On a workday 2,854 residents head out to work, 1,051 work right here, and 2,476 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 (0.90 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.
How far Eunice’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.
Inside Eunice’s 3,527 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Eunice, 2013 → 2023: 3,790 → 3,527. 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 Eunice’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where people from Eunice work
Where Eunice clocks in
8% of workers
7% 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.
A commute of about 24 minutes in Eunice
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Eunice workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,289 commuters (the 5% 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.
Good to walk, short on transit: Eunice
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Eunice is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns, #9 of 161 in Louisiana. Both inputs place Eunice 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 3,449 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). 12.6% of Eunice households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Eunice’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 6,300 to 12,200, and where Eunice sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Pimmit Hills VA | 6,589 | $173K | 1.6% | 1.3% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Braddock VA | 6,536 | $212K | 0.9% | 1.0% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 191 | Addis LA | 7,679 | $108K | 3.2% | 1.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 361 | Belle Chasse LA | 10,934 | $115K | 6.1% | 2.5% | 16% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 977 | Harahan LA | 8,916 | $80K | 7.5% | 3.8% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,820 | Southeast Arcadia FL | 7,555 | $60K | 26.4% | 12.4% | 3% | D |
| 2,821 | Tuskegee AL | 8,644 | $38K | 29.0% | 10.8% | 24% | D |
| 2,822 | Eunice LA | 9,035 | $35K | 33.2% | 8.6% | 27% | D |
| 2,823 | Piñon Hills CA | 7,065 | $68K | 18.6% | 19.4% | 3% | D |
| 2,824 | Columbia MS | 6,525 | $39K | 24.5% | 8.3% | 37% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 2,891 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | 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 Eunice, 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 Eunice: questions
What is the median household income in Eunice?
$35,436 (±$6,343) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Eunice?
33.2%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Eunice?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Eunice work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lafayette (8%, 30 mi), Opelousas (7%, 20 mi), Baton Rouge (3%, 77 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Eunice walkable?
Eunice is more walkable than 86% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 9.4 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Eunice without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 13% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Eunice, from the people who make the trip.
More of Eunice
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.