Foster-Fair House · Photo: rossograph · CC BY-SA 4.0Households in Louisville have lower incomes than those in 97% of U.S. towns
About two in five work in Louisville itself; outside it, Starkville draws the most (6%, 27 miles). 39.3% of residents live below the poverty line, where Mississippi as a whole has 18.9%. Louisville grades D− for jobs and income and C for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
What sets Louisville apart on work
Louisville is where the jobs are
Louisville has 4,017 jobs, 1.9 for every working resident. Day and night ↓
Commutes from Louisville are quick
The average trip to work takes 18 minutes, against 26 across Mississippi. That’s about 61 hours a year less on the road than the typical Mississippi worker. Time on the road ↓
Fewer than half of Louisville workers earn over $40,000 a year
42% of Louisville’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 19% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How Louisville earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Louisville is better than 2% of U.S. towns, #99 of 99 in Mississippi. Job access by car holds Louisville’s grade up (ahead of 22% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Louisville could be anywhere from D− to C−.
The daily commute in and out of Louisville
On a workday 1,293 residents head out to work, 807 work right here, and 3,210 people come in from elsewhere.
About 7,800 people are in Louisville on a workday afternoon, 32% 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 2024, primary jobs.
About 18 minutes each way, quicker than most of Mississippi
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 5.6 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Louisville workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,696 commuters (the 3% who work from home are left out). Across Mississippi: 87% 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.
Louisville makes things: 28% of its jobs are in goods
4,017 jobs are based in Louisville.
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Louisville, 2014 → 2024: 3,871 → 4,017. 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 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Louisville’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Where Louisville’s workers come from
Where Louisville clocks in
3% 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 many miles Louisville commutes
About 28% 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 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Louisville is a driving town
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Louisville is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns, #75 of 101 in Mississippi. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 0.1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 1.8% across Mississippi.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,753 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). 13.8% of Louisville households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Louisville’s commuters take a bus or train.
How Louisville compares with U.S. towns of 4,100 to 8,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Ho-Ho-Kus NJ | 4,313 | $250K | 0.0% | 1.7% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 970 | Gulf Park Estates MS | 6,264 | $66K | 5.0% | 1.0% | 1% | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 979 | Saltillo MS | 5,060 | $81K | 6.8% | 1.3% | 3% | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,462 | Beechwood MS | 4,168 | $92K | 15.3% | 0.4% | 3% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 3,462 | Silver Springs NV | 5,060 | $49K | 19.6% | 11.0% | 3% | D− |
| 3,463 | Winnsboro LA | 4,566 | $36K | 43.5% | 10.9% | 31% | D− |
| 3,464 | Louisville MS | 5,921 | $37K | 39.3% | 10.3% | 38% | D− |
| 3,465 | Caruthersville MO | 5,211 | $35K | 31.4% | 9.0% | 35% | D− |
| 3,466 | Walton NY | 5,134 | $49K | 25.3% | 9.9% | 24% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,494 | Medina TX | 4,226 | $22K | 53.8% | 10.1% | 3% | 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 Louisville, the top three, the last and three more from Mississippi.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, 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 Louisville: questions
What is the median household income in Louisville?
$36,985 (±$9,918) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Louisville?
39.3%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Louisville?
18 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 3% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Louisville work?
38% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Starkville (6%, 27 mi), Philadelphia (3%, 24 mi), Columbus (3%, 46 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Louisville walkable?
Louisville is more walkable than 26% of U.S. towns (Walkability C): an EPA walkability index of 6.9 out of 20, and <1% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Louisville without a car?
0% 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 Louisville, from the people who make the trip.
More of Louisville
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, 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.