Bosco Plantation House · Photo: Rswood · CC BY-SA 4.0Richwood has some of the lowest household incomes of any U.S. town
Poverty touches 39.1% of residents (Louisiana 18.9%). Measured by household income, Richwood is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. Jobs and income earn Richwood D; getting around on foot earns it C+.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Richwood apart on work
The jobs in Richwood pay better than its residents’ jobs
76% of the jobs based in Richwood pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 29% of the jobs Richwood residents hold. 99% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Richwood. The jobs ↓
43% of Richwood works in Monroe
370 working residents, 43%, have their main job in Monroe, 4.9 miles away across the town line. That’s far more as work in Richwood itself. The commute map ↓
Most Richwood residents work close to home
62% of working residents have their main job less than 10 miles from home. 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; with 856 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Richwood
On income, poverty and job access, Richwood is better than 12% of U.S. towns, #123 of 161 in Louisiana. Job access by car holds Richwood’s grade up (ahead of 63% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($31,680, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (9.1%) is left out: Richwood’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, Richwood stays D.
Most jobs in Richwood are in services
526 jobs are based in Richwood.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Richwood, 2013 → 2023: 533 → 526. 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 Richwood’s own residents hold wherever they work.
43% of working residents work in Monroe
Where Richwood clocks in
43% of workers
10% 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.
Where in the region Richwood works
About 27% 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.
How many people are in Richwood by day
On a workday 852 residents head out to work, 4 work right here, and 522 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
0.61 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.
A commute of about 19 minutes in Richwood
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 6.2 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Richwood workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 693 commuters (the 11% 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.
For most of Richwood, work means a drive
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Richwood is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns, #97 of 161 in Louisiana. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 4.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.3% across Louisiana, on an EPA index of 4.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 781 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). 14.1% of Richwood households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 1% of Richwood’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Richwood is 3,805th among 4,264 U.S. towns of 2,700 to 5,200
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riverwoods IL | 3,766 | $249K | 0.7% | 0.7% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Mission Hills KS | 3,522 | $250K | 1.2% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 299 | Hahnville LA | 3,520 | $101K | 6.7% | 0.0% | 8% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 769 | South Vacherie LA | 2,954 | $81K | 3.7% | 1.6% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 944 | Greenwood LA | 3,077 | $64K | 3.7% | 1.3% | 4% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,803 | Starkey NY | 3,334 | $55K | 19.7% | 4.8% | 16% | D |
| 3,804 | Westville IL | 3,029 | $55K | 18.6% | 8.5% | 7% | D |
| 3,805 | Richwood LA | 3,834 | $32K | 39.1% | 9.1% | <1% | D |
| 3,806 | Lindsay OK | 2,929 | $52K | 16.0% | 6.1% | 31% | D |
| 3,807 | Washington Township OH | 5,091 | $45K | 16.3% | 5.8% | 7% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 4,264 | 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 Richwood, the top three, the last and three more from Louisiana.
Bordering towns draw 43% of Richwood’s workers
Jobs & commute next door
The biggest share goes to Monroe. Darker towns draw more of Richwood’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 Richwood: questions
What is the median household income in Richwood?
$31,680 (±$6,119) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Richwood?
39.1%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Richwood?
19 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Richwood work?
<1% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Monroe (43%, 5 mi), West Monroe (10%, 6 mi), Shreveport (4%, 100 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Richwood walkable?
Richwood is more walkable than 44% of U.S. towns (Walkability C+): an EPA walkability index of 4.8 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Richwood without a car?
1% of commuters take transit and 14% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Richwood, from the people who make the trip.
More of Richwood
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.