Photo: Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA · CC BY-SA 2.0Gonzales draws 10,343 commuters a day, with 2.0 jobs for every working resident
11,068 jobs are based in Gonzales for 5,606 working residents. For jobs and income Gonzales is better than 49% of U.S. towns (B−); for walkability it is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns (B−). About one in seven work in Gonzales itself; outside it, Baton Rouge draws the most (19%, 20 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work in Gonzales: the figures worth knowing
Gonzales draws workers from far and wide
The 11,068 jobs in Gonzales are filled from a wide area. Gonzales’ own residents hold 7% and the ten next-biggest home towns 19%; the other 74% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Gonzales is where the jobs are
Gonzales has 11,068 jobs, 2.0 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
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.
What’s behind Gonzales’ Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Gonzales’ grade up (ahead of 79% of U.S. towns); unemployment pulls it down (7.9%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and the poverty rate.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Gonzales could be anywhere from C to A−.
Where Gonzales’ workforce comes from
Where Gonzales clocks in
19% 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.
How many people are in Gonzales by day
On a workday 4,881 residents head out to work and 725 work right here.
About 19,000 people are in Gonzales on a workday afternoon, 39% more than live here.
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
What Gonzales’ employers do
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gonzales, 2013 → 2023: 10,384 → 11,068. 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 Gonzales’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 25 minutes each way, about the LA average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gonzales workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 5,814 commuters (the 8% 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.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Gonzales
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 Gonzales, the car does most of the work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.0% 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 6,300 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). 7.5% of Gonzales households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gonzales’ commuters take a bus or train.
Gonzales is 1,418th of 2,227 U.S. towns of 10,000 to 19,000 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 2 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 3 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 315 | Belle Chasse LA | 10,934 | $115K | 6.1% | 2.5% | 16% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 656 | Mandeville LA | 12,918 | $94K | 7.1% | 2.9% | 16% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 766 | Moss Bluff LA | 12,482 | $92K | 8.9% | 1.1% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,416 | South Venice FL | 17,484 | $77K | 12.5% | 3.9% | 5% | B− |
| 1,417 | Rancho Mirage CA | 17,876 | $107K | 11.7% | 9.4% | 14% | B− |
| 1,418 | Gonzales LA | 13,930 | $75K | 9.0% | 7.9% | 13% | B− |
| 1,419 | York SC | 10,620 | $56K | 15.9% | 2.2% | 10% | B− |
| 1,420 | Berkley CO | 10,789 | $85K | 14.1% | 8.7% | 2% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,227 | Douglas AZ | 16,038 | $42K | 27.8% | 12.3% | 29% | 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 Gonzales, 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 Gonzales: questions
What is the median household income in Gonzales?
$75,451 (±$15,845) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gonzales?
9.0%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gonzales?
25 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gonzales work?
13% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Baton Rouge (19%, 20 mi), Donaldsonville (5%, 9 mi), Prairieville (3%, 7 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gonzales walkable?
Gonzales is more walkable than 53% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gonzales without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 8% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gonzales, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gonzales
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.