Photo: Piccor at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Franklin’s household incomes are lower than in 96% of U.S. towns
Franklin grades C− for jobs and income and B for walkability. Poverty touches 27.3% of residents; Louisiana has 18.9%. About one in four work in Franklin itself; outside it, Lafayette draws the most (7%, 43 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Franklin in brief
Fewer than half of Franklin workers earn over $40,000 a year
43% of Franklin’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 17% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Commutes from Franklin are quick
The average trip to work takes 21 minutes, against 26 across Louisiana. That’s about 38 hours a year less on the road than the typical Louisiana worker. Time on the road ↓
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.
Franklin’s Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Franklin is better than 22% of U.S. towns, #95 of 161 in Louisiana. Unemployment holds Franklin’s grade up (2.8%, U.S. 5.2%); household income pulls it down ($39,518, U.S. $80,734).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Franklin could be anywhere from D to C.
The kinds of work in Franklin
3,643 jobs are based in Franklin.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Franklin, 2013 → 2023: 4,688 → 3,643. 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 Franklin’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 21 minutes to work from Franklin
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Franklin workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,312 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.
How many people are in Franklin by day
On a workday 2,057 residents head out to work, 717 work right here, and 2,926 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,100 people are in Franklin on a workday afternoon, 14% more than live here.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.31 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.
The places Franklin commutes to
Where Franklin clocks in
7% of workers
5% 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.
The commute from Franklin, by distance
About 23% 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.
Few in Franklin walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Franklin is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns, #68 of 161 in Louisiana. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.1% 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 2,445 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). 10.9% of Franklin households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Franklin’s commuters take a bus or train.
Out of 3,297 U.S. towns of 4,400 to 8,400, Franklin comes 2,697th on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 172 | Addis LA | 7,679 | $108K | 3.2% | 1.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 979 | Elmwood LA | 6,077 | $89K | 7.7% | 4.8% | 13% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,232 | Westlake LA | 4,763 | $68K | 12.1% | 0.0% | 4% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,695 | Marlow Heights MD | 5,456 | $56K | 31.5% | 15.1% | 2% | C− |
| 2,696 | Edenton NC | 4,546 | $38K | 30.0% | 0.0% | 33% | C− |
| 2,697 | Franklin LA | 6,224 | $40K | 27.3% | 2.8% | 26% | C− |
| 2,698 | Roosevelt UT | 7,032 | $76K | 15.9% | 6.1% | 37% | C− |
| 2,699 | Fairfield IL | 4,794 | $42K | 17.7% | 2.6% | 32% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,297 | 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 Franklin, 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 Franklin: questions
What is the median household income in Franklin?
$39,518 (±$3,847) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Franklin?
27.3%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Franklin?
21 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Franklin work?
26% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lafayette (7%, 43 mi), Baton Rouge (5%, 51 mi), New Iberia (4%, 24 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Franklin walkable?
Franklin is more walkable than 62% of U.S. towns (Walkability B): an EPA walkability index of 8.2 out of 20, and 2% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Franklin without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 11% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Franklin, from the people who make the trip.
More of Franklin
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.