Photo: Billy Hathorn · CC BY-SA 3.0Households in Rayville earn less than in almost any other U.S. town
Poverty touches 41.1% of residents; Louisiana has 18.9%. Measured by household income, Rayville is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The two grades for Rayville are D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Rayville and work: the main findings
Fewer than half of Rayville workers earn over $40,000 a year
32% of Rayville’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 24% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Rayville is where the jobs are
Rayville has 2,058 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Rayville are quick
The average trip to work takes 19 minutes, against 26 across Louisiana. That’s about 54 hours a year less on the road than the typical Louisiana 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.
How Rayville earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty and job access, Rayville is better than 6% of U.S. towns, #139 of 161 in Louisiana. Job access by car holds Rayville’s grade up (ahead of 44% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($27,273, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (12.2%) is left out: Rayville’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, Rayville stays D.
Jobs in Rayville: what the 2,058 are
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Rayville, 2013 → 2023: 2,482 → 2,058. 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 Rayville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The daily commute in and out of Rayville
On a workday 864 residents head out to work, 227 work right here, and 1,831 people come in from elsewhere.
About 4,100 people are in Rayville on a workday afternoon, 30% more than live here.
1.9 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.
The daily trip from Rayville: about 19 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Rayville workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 758 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.
The daily trip into Rayville
Where Rayville clocks in
17% of workers
5% of workers
4% 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 far Rayville’s workers travel
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.
Driving is how Rayville gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Rayville is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns, #39 of 161 in Louisiana. Both inputs place Rayville near the same point nationally.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 796 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). 22.6% of Rayville households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Rayville’s commuters take a bus or train.
Rayville and other U.S. towns of 2,200 to 4,300
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenilworth IL | 2,437 | $250K | 2.1% | 4.0% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Belle Meade TN | 2,621 | $250K | 1.4% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 288 | Hahnville LA | 3,520 | $101K | 6.7% | 0.0% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 479 | Des Allemands LA | 2,382 | $88K | 2.4% | 2.5% | 2% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 760 | South Vacherie LA | 2,954 | $81K | 3.7% | 1.6% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 4,370 | Chauvin LA | 2,502 | $53K | 21.3% | 10.3% | 6% | D |
| 4,371 | Pine Ridge SD | 2,246 | $53K | 14.5% | 7.9% | 10% | D |
| 4,372 | Rayville LA | 3,176 | $27K | 41.1% | 12.2% | 21% | D |
| 4,373 | Tipton MO | 2,766 | $49K | 20.4% | 0.6% | 17% | D |
| 4,374 | Bellows Falls VT | 2,706 | $56K | 25.1% | 11.7% | 15% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,698 | Lake Isabella CA | 4,059 | $27K | 40.7% | 8.6% | 18% | 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 Rayville, 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 Rayville: questions
What is the median household income in Rayville?
$27,273 (±$12,485) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Rayville?
41.1%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Rayville?
19 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 5% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Rayville work?
21% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Monroe (17%, 19 mi), Delhi (5%, 16 mi), West Monroe (4%, 23 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Rayville walkable?
Rayville is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.6 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Rayville without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 23% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Rayville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Rayville
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.