Photo: Billy Hathorn at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes in Sibley trail those of 95% of U.S. towns
Only 2% work in Sibley itself; outside it, Minden draws the most (25%, 5 miles). Below the poverty line: 24.2% of residents (Louisiana 18.9%). Sibley grades D for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2023, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Sibley apart on work
The four measures behind Sibley’s grade
On income, poverty and job access, Sibley is better than 8% of U.S. towns. Job access by car holds Sibley’s grade up (ahead of 37% of U.S. towns); household income pulls it down ($42,061, U.S. $80,734).
Unemployment (2.4%) is left out: Sibley’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, Sibley could be anywhere from D to C−.
Where Sibley’s working residents head each day
Where Sibley clocks in
25% of workers
17% of workers
12% 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.
A workday in Sibley: who goes, who stays, who comes
On a workday 441 residents head out to work, 10 work right here, and 206 people come in from elsewhere.
About 830 people are in Sibley on a workday afternoon, 22% fewer than live here.
0.48 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.
The kinds of work in Sibley
216 jobs are based in Sibley.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Sibley, 2013 → 2023: 115 → 216. 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 Sibley’s own residents hold wherever they work.
About 27 minutes each way, about the LA average
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 8.5 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Sibley workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 499 commuters (the 9% 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.
Near or far: the trip to work from Sibley
About 16% 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 around Sibley: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Sibley is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 2.6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.3% across Louisiana, on an EPA index of 5.0.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 549 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). 4.4% of Sibley households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Sibley’s commuters take a bus or train.
For jobs and income, Sibley is 2,669th of 3,133 U.S. towns of 700 to 1,400
| # | 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+ |
| … | |||||||
| 734 | Watson LA | 1,357 | $97K | 17.2% | 3.0% | 2% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 744 | Egan LA | 1,015 | $93K | 10.3% | 6.9% | 1% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 953 | Choudrant LA | 1,032 | $73K | 8.1% | 0.5% | 5% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,667 | Brooks ME | 1,023 | $59K | 19.1% | 4.4% | 2% | D |
| 2,668 | Brownville ME | 1,153 | $64K | 18.3% | 11.6% | 12% | D |
| 2,669 | Sibley LA | 1,068 | $42K | 24.2% | 2.4% | 2% | D |
| 2,670 | Bayboro NC | 1,242 | $34K | 12.2% | 1.4% | 7% | D |
| 2,671 | Russells Point OH | 1,323 | $42K | 26.2% | 5.3% | 6% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,133 | 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 Sibley, 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 Sibley: questions
What is the median household income in Sibley?
$42,061 (±$5,347) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Sibley?
24.2%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Sibley?
27 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 9% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Sibley work?
2% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Minden (25%, 5 mi), Shreveport (17%, 30 mi), Bossier City (12%, 21 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Sibley walkable?
Sibley is more walkable than 34% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 5.0 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Sibley without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 4% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Sibley, from the people who make the trip.
More of Sibley
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.