Photo: Z28scrambler · CC BY-SA 3.0Opelousas ranks among the lowest-earning U.S. towns by household income
Opelousas grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability. Measured by household income, Opelousas is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. Poverty touches 37.4% of residents, where Louisiana as a whole has 18.9%.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Work and commuting in Opelousas, in brief
Opelousas draws workers from far and wide
The 9,923 jobs in Opelousas are filled from a wide area. Opelousas’ own residents hold 14% and the ten next-biggest home towns 14%; the other 72% come from many towns beyond those. The commute map ↓
Opelousas is where the jobs are
Opelousas has 9,923 jobs, 1.8 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Fewer than half of Opelousas workers earn over $40,000 a year
36% of Opelousas’ working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Opelousas’ biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Opelousas is Lafayette, 22 miles away as the crow flies. 16% of working residents (857) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. 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.
Opelousas’ Jobs & income grade, measure by measure
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Opelousas is better than 8% of U.S. towns, #132 of 161 in Louisiana. Job access by car holds Opelousas’ grade up (ahead of 62% 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, Opelousas stays D.
The daily trip into Opelousas
Where Opelousas clocks in
16% of workers
5% of workers
2% 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 a workday changes Opelousas
On a workday 4,053 residents head out to work, 1,377 work right here, and 8,546 people come in from elsewhere.
About 20,000 people are in Opelousas on a workday afternoon, 30% more than live here.
1.8 jobs for every working resident, so more people commute in than 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.
What work there is in Opelousas: 9,923 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Opelousas, 2013 → 2023: 10,495 → 9,923. 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 Opelousas’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Opelousas’ workers travel
About 30% 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.
Getting to work from Opelousas takes about 24 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7.8 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Opelousas workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 4,835 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.
In Opelousas, the car does most of the work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Opelousas is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns, #46 of 161 in Louisiana. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.7% 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 5,087 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). 22.3% of Opelousas households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Opelousas’ commuters take a bus or train.
Opelousas next to U.S. towns of 11,000 to 20,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Albany OH | 11,803 | $238K | 1.4% | 0.9% | 11% | A+ |
| 2 | Plain Township OH | 13,257 | $219K | 2.1% | 0.8% | 10% | A+ |
| 3 | Rogers MN | 15,606 | $159K | 1.9% | 1.2% | 10% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 458 | Youngsville LA | 19,980 | $106K | 9.1% | 1.2% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 606 | Mandeville LA | 12,918 | $94K | 7.1% | 2.9% | 16% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 708 | Moss Bluff LA | 12,482 | $92K | 8.9% | 1.1% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,914 | Lehman Township PA | 11,366 | $67K | 17.7% | 9.3% | 6% | D |
| 1,915 | Coolidge AZ | 19,959 | $67K | 19.9% | 14.1% | 11% | D |
| 1,916 | Opelousas LA | 15,098 | $33K | 37.4% | 11.9% | 25% | D |
| 1,917 | Benton Township MI | 14,228 | $39K | 33.1% | 12.1% | 22% | D |
| 1,918 | Susanville CA | 12,816 | $62K | 17.6% | 9.3% | 59% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 1,969 | 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 Opelousas, 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 Opelousas: questions
What is the median household income in Opelousas?
$32,964 (±$4,837) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Opelousas?
37.4%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Opelousas?
24 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Opelousas work?
25% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Lafayette (16%, 22 mi), Baton Rouge (5%, 57 mi), Broussard (2%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Opelousas walkable?
Opelousas is more walkable than 70% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.5 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Opelousas without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 22% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Opelousas, from the people who make the trip.
More of Opelousas
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.