Photo: Chris Litherland · CC BY-SA 3.0Gueydan has some of the lowest household incomes of any U.S. town
39.5% of residents live below the poverty line; Louisiana has 18.9%. Measured by household income, Gueydan is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. For jobs and income Gueydan is better than 3% of U.S. towns (D−); for walkability it is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (B−).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
The commute and the jobs: Gueydan in brief
Gueydan’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Gueydan is Lafayette, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (51) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Gueydan workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 38 minutes each way, against 26 across Louisiana. Over a year that’s about 291 hours of commuting, 92 more than the state’s typical 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; with 427 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Inside Gueydan’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Gueydan’s grade up (ahead of 27% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($27,891, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (22.8%) is left out: Gueydan’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A firm grade. At either end of the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Gueydan stays D−.
Close to home or a long way: work trips from Gueydan
About 24% 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.
Time on the road from Gueydan: about 38 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 12.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Gueydan workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 333 commuters (the 3% 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.
In and out of Gueydan on a workday
On a workday 368 residents head out to work, 59 work right here, and 128 people come in from elsewhere.
About 880 people are in Gueydan on a workday afternoon, 21% fewer than live here.
0.44 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.
12% of working residents work in Lafayette
Where Gueydan clocks in
12% of workers
5% 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.
What the 187 jobs in Gueydan are
187 jobs are based in Gueydan.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Gueydan, 2013 → 2023: 240 → 187. 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 Gueydan’s own residents hold wherever they work.
For most of Gueydan, work means a drive
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 1.2% 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 345 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). 5.5% of Gueydan households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Gueydan’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 800 to 1,500, and where Gueydan sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 410 | Lockport Heights LA | 1,481 | $126K | 7.5% | 0.0% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 908 | Perry LA | 1,424 | $82K | 9.5% | 1.3% | 1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 910 | Watson LA | 1,357 | $97K | 17.2% | 3.0% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,566 | Highland AR | 1,060 | $49K | 21.3% | 6.6% | 5% | D− |
| 3,567 | Worthington IN | 1,403 | $47K | 23.8% | 6.0% | 5% | D− |
| 3,568 | Gueydan LA | 1,122 | $28K | 39.5% | 22.8% | 14% | D− |
| 3,569 | Rolla ND | 1,156 | $49K | 23.1% | 2.8% | 35% | D− |
| 3,570 | Frost Township MI | 1,065 | $47K | 18.6% | 11.4% | 1% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,771 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Gueydan, 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 Gueydan: questions
What is the median household income in Gueydan?
$27,891 (±$10,484) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Gueydan?
39.5%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Gueydan?
38 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Gueydan work?
14% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lafayette (12%, 31 mi), Abbeville (9%, 23 mi), Crowley (5%, 15 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Gueydan walkable?
Gueydan is more walkable than 47% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 7.7 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Gueydan without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Gueydan, from the people who make the trip.
More of Gueydan
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.