Photo: Infrogmation of New Orleans · CC BY-SA 3.0Most of Meraux commutes out: there are 0.2 jobs for every working resident
Meraux has 683 jobs for 3,177 working residents. For jobs and income Meraux is better than 56% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns (B−). Only 4% work in Meraux; the top destination outside it is New Orleans (26%, 9 miles).
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Where Meraux stands out on work
Much of Meraux works one town over
48% of working residents work in a town that borders Meraux: New Orleans (26%) and Chalmette (22%). Next door ↓
The better-paid jobs are outside Meraux
62% of Meraux residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, but only 36% of the jobs based in Meraux pay that much. Most residents work elsewhere: 96% leave town for their job. The jobs ↓
Meraux makes and builds things
45% of the jobs based in Meraux are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Meraux residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 18%. The jobs ↓
Meraux is a place people come home to
There are 683 jobs based in Meraux, about two for every ten working residents, so almost everyone works somewhere else. On a workday Meraux has about 5,400 people in it, 31% fewer than live here. Day and night ↓
Meraux workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 33 minutes each way, against 26 across Louisiana. Over a year that’s about 253 hours of commuting, 54 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.
What’s behind Meraux’s Jobs & income grade
Job access by car holds Meraux’s grade up (ahead of 82% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down (21.7%, U.S. 12.5%). It also does well on household income and unemployment.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Meraux could be anywhere from C+ to A−.
Meraux makes things: 45% of its jobs are in goods
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Meraux, 2013 → 2023: 460 → 683. 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 Meraux’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who works in Meraux, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 3,065 residents head out to work, 112 work right here, and 571 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,400 people are in Meraux on a workday afternoon, 31% fewer 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.
Meraux’s commute takes about 33 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 10.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Meraux workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,573 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.
Where Meraux’s working residents head each day
Where Meraux clocks in
26% of workers
22% of workers
10% 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.
Half of Meraux commutes less than 10 miles
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 Meraux, the car does most of the work
How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 3.4% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.3% across Louisiana, on an EPA index of 6.2.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,767 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service (shown, not graded). 0% of residents live within a ¾-mile walk of a bus or train stop, 0% within a quarter mile. At the weekday evening rush, about under 0.1 trips an hour stop near the typical resident, more than in 20% of the 9,825 U.S. towns with transit data.
Transit at the evening rush trips an hour stopping within ¼ mile of the typical resident, EPA 2020
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 4.7% of Meraux households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Meraux’s commuters take a bus or train.
Meraux is 1,583rd of 3,069 U.S. towns of 5,500 to 10,700 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 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 187 | Addis LA | 7,679 | $108K | 3.2% | 1.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 956 | Harahan LA | 8,916 | $80K | 7.5% | 3.8% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 993 | Elmwood LA | 6,077 | $89K | 7.7% | 4.8% | 13% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,581 | Woodfin NC | 8,229 | $71K | 14.1% | 3.0% | 6% | B |
| 1,582 | Plainfield Township PA | 6,315 | $87K | 9.4% | 5.6% | 5% | B |
| 1,583 | Meraux LA | 7,918 | $76K | 21.7% | 2.9% | 4% | B |
| 1,584 | Tolleson AZ | 9,224 | $60K | 18.0% | 2.4% | 10% | B |
| 1,585 | Holly MI | 5,906 | $64K | 8.5% | 4.2% | 6% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,069 | 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 Meraux, the top three, the last and three more from Louisiana.
Work next door: 48% of Meraux’s workers
Average commute minutes, one way
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Meraux workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meraux | – | B | B− | 33 min | $76,021 |
| Violet | under 2% | C− | C+ | 35 min | $51,038 |
| Chalmette | 22% | C− | A− | 29 min | $54,904 |
| New Orleans | 26% | C | A+ | 23 min | $56,631 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to New Orleans. Darker towns draw more of Meraux’s workers. Tap a town to see its commute.
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 Meraux: questions
What is the median household income in Meraux?
$76,021 (±$15,249) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Meraux?
21.7%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Meraux?
33 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Meraux work?
4% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are New Orleans (26%, 9 mi), Chalmette (22%, 3 mi), Metairie (10%, 16 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Meraux walkable?
Meraux is more walkable than 51% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 6.2 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Meraux without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 5% of households have no car. 0% of residents live within a quarter mile of a stop.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Meraux, from the people who make the trip.
More of Meraux
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.