Photo: Shyngo at en.wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0Household incomes put Zwolle near the very bottom of U.S. towns
42.0% of residents live below the poverty line, against 18.9% across Louisiana. Measured by household income, Zwolle is among the lowest-earning towns in the country. The two grades for Zwolle 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
Zwolle and work: the main findings
A big share show a job far from home
42% of working residents have a main job more than 50 miles away. Part of that is employers that report every worker at one head office, so not all of those trips happen daily. How far ↓
Zwolle makes and builds things
56% of the jobs based in Zwolle are in goods: factories, construction and farms. Across the jobs Zwolle residents hold, wherever they work, it’s 28%. The jobs ↓
The jobs in Zwolle pay better than its residents’ jobs
66% of the jobs based in Zwolle pay over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year), against 41% of the jobs Zwolle residents hold. 92% of the jobs here are held by people who live outside Zwolle. 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; with 556 working residents, small shifts move the shares.
Where Zwolle’s Jobs & income grade comes from
On income, poverty and job access, Zwolle is near the bottom of U.S. towns. All three inputs sit close together, so no single one decides Zwolle’s grade.
Unemployment (9.7%) is left out: Zwolle’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, Zwolle stays D−.
Near or far: the trip to work from Zwolle
About 42% 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.
Factories, building and farms: 56% of the jobs in Zwolle
574 jobs are based in Zwolle.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Zwolle, 2013 → 2023: 409 → 574. 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 Zwolle’s own residents hold wherever they work.
The workday shuffle in and out of Zwolle
On a workday 508 residents head out to work, 48 work right here, and 526 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.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.03 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2023, primary jobs.
21% of working residents work in Many
Where Zwolle clocks in
21% of workers
7% of workers
5% 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.
From Zwolle, about 28 minutes to the job
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.1 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Zwolle workers work from home, vs 8% across Louisiana. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 538 commuters (the 4% 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.
Driving is how Zwolle gets around
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Zwolle is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 3.3% across Louisiana, on an EPA index of 4.9.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 561 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). 15.6% of Zwolle households have no vehicle (Louisiana 8.4%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Zwolle’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 1,100 to 2,200, and where Zwolle sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Somerset MD | 1,151 | $250K | 1.9% | 2.3% | <1% | A+ |
| 2 | Chevy Chase Village MD | 1,978 | $250K | 1.2% | 2.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Bellerose NY | 1,169 | $232K | 1.6% | 6.1% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 53 | Bayou Gauche LA | 1,908 | $163K | 0.0% | 0.0% | 1% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 265 | Montz LA | 2,074 | $92K | 4.7% | 0.2% | <1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 387 | Presquille LA | 2,062 | $112K | 1.1% | 14.9% | 1% | A |
| … | |||||||
| 6,130 | Butler GA | 1,825 | $22K | 49.6% | 2.0% | 17% | D− |
| 6,131 | Beattyville KY | 2,114 | $23K | 42.2% | 14.5% | 26% | D− |
| 6,132 | Zwolle LA | 1,605 | $28K | 42.0% | 9.7% | 9% | D− |
| 6,133 | Piedmont MO | 1,862 | $40K | 49.0% | 8.2% | 28% | D− |
| 6,134 | Jal NM | 2,178 | — | 32.0% | 18.8% | 44% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 6,161 | Paraje NM | 1,333 | $33K | 61.7% | 0.0% | 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 Zwolle, 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 Zwolle: questions
What is the median household income in Zwolle?
$27,688 (±$5,216) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $60,756 across Louisiana and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Zwolle?
42.0%, against 18.9% across Louisiana and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Zwolle?
28 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Louisiana and 26 nationally. 4% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Zwolle work?
9% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Many (21%, 11 mi), Shreveport (7%, 58 mi), Natchitoches (5%, 32 mi) (Census LEHD 2023).
Is Zwolle walkable?
Zwolle is more walkable than 49% of U.S. towns (Walkability B−): an EPA walkability index of 4.9 out of 20, and 6% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Zwolle without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Zwolle, from the people who make the trip.
More of Zwolle
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.