Photo: Billy Hathorn at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes put Ringgold near the very bottom of U.S. towns
Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. Below the poverty line: 33.8% of residents; Louisiana has 18.9%. Jobs and income earn Ringgold 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
The work figures that set Ringgold apart
Ringgold’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Ringgold is Shreveport, 31 miles away as the crow flies. 20% of working residents (88) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Ringgold workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 39 minutes each way, against 26 across Louisiana. Over a year that’s about 299 hours of commuting, 100 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; with 430 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Income, poverty and work: Ringgold’s grade explained
On income, poverty and job access, Ringgold is better than 2% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Ringgold’s grade up (ahead of 23% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($30,592, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (14.3%) is left out: Ringgold’s labor force is under 1,000, too few workers for a steady figure.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income and poverty, Ringgold could be anywhere from D− to D.
How many miles Ringgold commutes
About 22% 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.
The trip to work from Ringgold: about 39 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 12.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Ringgold workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 325 commuters (the 8% 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 workday shuffle in and out of Ringgold
On a workday 386 residents head out to work, 44 work right here, and 153 people come in from elsewhere.
About 1,100 people are in Ringgold on a workday afternoon, 18% fewer than live here.
0.46 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.
20% of working residents work in Shreveport
Where Ringgold clocks in
20% of workers
8% of workers
7% 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.
Services make up most of the work in Ringgold
197 jobs are based in Ringgold.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Ringgold, 2013 → 2023: 241 → 197. 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 Ringgold’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The commute in Ringgold is mostly behind the wheel
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Ringgold is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns. Both inputs place Ringgold 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 354 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). 20.7% of Ringgold households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Ringgold’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ringgold next to U.S. towns of 900 to 1,800
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| 3 | Baxter Estates NY | 1,014 | $154K | 1.0% | 3.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 314 | Paulina LA | 1,785 | $89K | 2.1% | 0.0% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 490 | Sorrento LA | 1,622 | $118K | 8.5% | 3.2% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 513 | Cade LA | 1,710 | $73K | 6.0% | 1.5% | 2% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,133 | Griggsville IL | 1,047 | $37K | 23.4% | 4.4% | 5% | D− |
| 5,134 | Colfax LA | 1,393 | $26K | 37.3% | 5.8% | 20% | D− |
| 5,135 | Ringgold LA | 1,314 | $31K | 33.8% | 14.3% | 10% | D− |
| 5,136 | Bernice LA | 1,305 | $26K | 28.1% | 4.6% | 5% | D− |
| 5,137 | Whitehall MT | 1,131 | $45K | 20.6% | 8.9% | 13% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 5,400 | Oglala SD | 1,071 | $21K | 68.8% | 26.5% | 0% | 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 Ringgold, 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 Ringgold: questions
What is the median household income in Ringgold?
$30,592 (±$12,497) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Ringgold?
33.8%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Ringgold?
39 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 8% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Ringgold work?
10% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Shreveport (20%, 31 mi), Bossier City (8%, 26 mi), Minden (7%, 20 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Ringgold walkable?
Ringgold is more walkable than 17% of U.S. towns (Walkability C−): an EPA walkability index of 5.1 out of 20, and 1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Ringgold without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 21% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Ringgold, from the people who make the trip.
More of Ringgold
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.