Photo: Billy Hathorn at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Ferriday are among the lowest of any U.S. town
Measured by household income, Ferriday is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. 55.0% of residents live below the poverty line; Louisiana has 18.9%. For jobs and income Ferriday is near the bottom of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (B).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Ferriday apart on work
Fewer than half of Ferriday workers earn over $40,000 a year
31% of Ferriday’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 22% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
A big share show a job far from home
36% 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 ↓
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 942 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What’s behind Ferriday’s Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Ferriday is near the bottom of U.S. towns, #160 of 161 in Louisiana. Job access by car holds Ferriday’s grade up (ahead of 23% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Ferriday stays D−.
Most jobs in Ferriday are in services
812 jobs are based in Ferriday.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ferriday, 2013 → 2023: 850 → 812. 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 Ferriday’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The distance from Ferriday to work
About 36% 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.
A workday in Ferriday: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 803 residents head out to work, 139 work right here, and 673 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 (0.86 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.
12% of working residents work in Vidalia
Where Ferriday clocks in
12% 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.
Ferriday’s commute takes about 23 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ferriday workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 901 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.
The commute in Ferriday is mostly behind the wheel
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 945 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). 14.6% of Ferriday households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ferriday’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Ferriday compares with U.S. towns of 2,100 to 4,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 271 | Hahnville LA | 3,520 | $101K | 6.7% | 0.0% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 453 | Des Allemands LA | 2,382 | $88K | 2.4% | 2.5% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 729 | South Vacherie LA | 2,954 | $81K | 3.7% | 1.6% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,560 | Alamo GA | 3,362 | $18K | 45.6% | 16.0% | 9% | D− |
| 4,561 | Abbeville GA | 2,819 | $42K | 41.7% | 9.8% | 8% | D− |
| 4,562 | Ferriday LA | 2,984 | $28K | 55.0% | 21.4% | 15% | D− |
| 4,563 | Clayton NM | 2,510 | $35K | 20.5% | 9.4% | 47% | D− |
| 4,564 | Denmark SC | 3,059 | $27K | 35.1% | 20.4% | 10% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,618 | Cibecue AZ | 2,228 | $26K | 57.2% | 13.3% | 12% | 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 Ferriday, 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 Ferriday: questions
What is the median household income in Ferriday?
$28,467 (±$6,469) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ferriday?
55.0%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ferriday?
23 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ferriday work?
15% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Vidalia (12%, 8 mi), Natchez (10%, 12 mi), Minorca (4%, 6 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ferriday walkable?
Ferriday is more walkable than 65% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ferriday 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 Ferriday, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ferriday
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.