Work means Lake Charles for more than half of Prien’s working residents
For jobs and income Prien is better than 58% of U.S. towns (B); for walkability it is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (C). The average commute takes 17 minutes each way (Louisiana 26, U.S. 26). Household incomes here are higher than in 65% of U.S. towns.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Prien and work: the main findings
More than half of Prien works in Lake Charles
1,500 working residents, 54%, have their main job in Lake Charles, 5 miles away across the town line. That’s 27 times as many as work in Prien itself. The commute map ↓
Most Prien residents work close to home
75% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home, about three in four. How far ↓
Commutes from Prien are quick
The average trip to work takes 17 minutes, against 26 across Louisiana. That’s about 69 hours a year less on the road than the typical Louisiana worker. Time on the road ↓
Prien makes and builds things
43% of the jobs based in Prien are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Prien residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 22%. The jobs ↓
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.
Inside Prien’s Jobs & income grade
The poverty rate holds Prien’s grade up (6.4%, U.S. 12.5%); unemployment pulls it down (6.9%, U.S. 5.2%). It also does well on household income and job access by car.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Prien could be anywhere from C to A+.
The places Prien commutes to
Where Prien clocks in
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.
The distance from Prien to work
About 19% 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.
Prien’s commute takes about 17 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.4 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Prien workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,261 commuters (the 7% 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.
Goods, not services: 43% of the jobs in Prien
855 jobs are based in Prien.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Prien, 2013 → 2023: 677 → 855. 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 Prien’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Who leaves Prien for work, and who comes in
On a workday 2,722 residents head out to work, 47 work right here, and 808 people come in from elsewhere.
About 5,200 people are in Prien on a workday afternoon, 27% fewer than live here.
0.31 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.
In Prien, most people drive to work
The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.6% 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 3,494 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). 2.1% of Prien households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Prien’s commuters take a bus or train.
1,555th of 3,164: where Prien ranks among U.S. towns of 5,000 to 9,600
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 182 | Addis LA | 7,679 | $108K | 3.2% | 1.8% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 961 | Harahan LA | 8,916 | $80K | 7.5% | 3.8% | 5% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,001 | Elmwood LA | 6,077 | $89K | 7.7% | 4.8% | 13% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,553 | Winslow ME | 8,063 | $71K | 10.8% | 1.3% | 12% | B |
| 1,554 | Cairo NY | 6,661 | $80K | 10.5% | 0.5% | 11% | B |
| 1,555 | Prien LA | 7,119 | $87K | 6.4% | 6.9% | 2% | B |
| 1,556 | Pea Ridge WV | 6,988 | $66K | 9.8% | 2.4% | 2% | B |
| 1,557 | Daytona Beach Shores FL | 5,187 | $74K | 5.7% | 5.1% | 6% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,164 | 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 Prien, the top three, the last and three more from Louisiana.
Work next door: 54% of Prien’s workers
Jobs & commute next door
| Town | Prien workers there | Jobs & income | Walkability | Commute | Household income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prien | – | B | C | 17 min | $87,292 |
| Lake Charles | 54% | C− | B+ | 17 min | $59,235 |
Same-state neighbors only. Commute: average minutes each way, Census ACS 2020–24.
The biggest share goes to Lake Charles. Darker towns draw more of Prien’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 Prien: questions
What is the median household income in Prien?
$87,292 (±$16,194) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Prien?
6.4%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Prien?
17 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 7% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Prien work?
2% work in town.
Is Prien walkable?
Prien is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.4 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Prien without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 2% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Prien, from the people who make the trip.
More of Prien
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.