Census-designated place · Lafourche Parish, Louisiana

Mathews, Louisiana

Mathews is a census-designated place in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana, part of the Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA metro area. It has 1,598 residents. Mathews, Louisiana has a quality-of-life score of 31 out of 100 (low), ranking #10,817 of 15,651 US cities and towns. Within Louisiana it ranks #30 of 262 cities and towns. It ranks best on comfortable days (high), broadband subscriptions (high) and time spent in the emergency room (low). It ranks worst on job growth (low), depression (high) and social associations (low).

31Low

Quality-of-life score: #10,817 of 15,651 cities and towns
Louisiana: #30 of 262 in LA
Population: 1,598 (2020-2024)
Land area: 4 mi²
Density: 401.4 /mi²
FIPS code: 2249170

Percentile-based score (100 is the best in the country) from 75 of 80 indicators, with the default “Explorer” weights.

Open in the map

Scores by category

Each category averages its indicators' percentile scores among US cities and towns.

Safety21#12,308/15,637
Economy53#7,423/15,631
Housing61#5,832/14,977
Health14#13,501/15,609
Healthcare50#7,858/15,650
Environment44#8,629/15,453
Education29#11,055/15,649
Infrastructure71#4,545/15,650
Community6#14,742/15,651
Leisure & amenities46#8,423/15,651

Strengths · Weaknesses

Indicators where Mathews, Louisiana ranks highest and lowest among US cities and towns (score = percentile, 100 = best). Values marked “Lafourche Parish value” are the county’s: the source publishes no figure for this city or town, and the county holding most of its residents stands in.

Strengths

Comfortable days · high33.8%
93/100Louisiana 29.3%United States 26.8%2016-2025NOAA National Centers for Environmental InformationLafourche Parish value
Broadband subscriptions · high96.5%
90/100Louisiana 86.6%United States 91.0%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B28002
Time spent in the emergency room · low121 min
87/100Louisiana 135 minUnited States 170 minOct 2024–Sep 2025Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesLafourche Parish value
Unemployment rate · low1.6%
87/100Louisiana 4.3%United States 4.3%2020-2024U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Census table B23025High uncertainty
Drinking water violations · low0
86/100Louisiana 1United States 02024University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteLafourche Parish value
Uninsured residents (under 65) · low2.7%
84/100Louisiana 9.2%United States 9.8%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B27010High uncertainty

Weaknesses

Job growth · low-6.0%
1/100Louisiana -0.5%United States 0.1%2026 Q1U.S. Bureau of Labor StatisticsProvisional dataLafourche Parish value
Depression · high30.9%
3/100Louisiana 27.2%United States 20.7%2023Centers for Disease Control and PreventionModel-based estimate
Social associations · low4.2 /10k
3/100Louisiana 9.4 /10kUnited States 9.1 /10k2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteLafourche Parish value
Child poverty rate · high0.0%
6/100Louisiana 25.0%United States 15.5%2020-2024U.S. Census Bureau Census table B17001
Public EV charging ports · low0.2 /10k
7/100Louisiana 1.8 /10kUnited States 7.6 /10kOct 2026U.S. Department of EnergyLafourche Parish value
Adult obesity · high43.3%
8/100Louisiana 42.3%United States 38.2%2023University of Wisconsin Population Health InstituteModel-based estimate

Trends

The largest changes over about five years, next to the country's over the same periods.

PopulationFalling
2,551 (2015-2019) → 1,598 (2020-2024)
−37%5 yearsCensus table B01003US 328,329,953 → 340,003,797
Rent-burdened householdsImproving
90.0% (2015-2019) → 18.6% (2020-2024)
−71 pts5 yearsCensus table B25070US 49.6% → 51.1%
Rent as share of incomeImproving
51.0% (2015-2019) → 16.5% (2020-2024)
−35 pts5 yearsCensus table B25071US 29.8% → 30.6%
Broadband subscriptionsImproving
76.9% (2015-2019) → 96.5% (2020-2024)
+20 pts5 yearsCensus table B28002US 82.7% → 91.0%
Bachelor's degree or higherImproving
13.6% (2015-2019) → 28.1% (2020-2024)
+14 pts5 yearsCensus table B15003US 32.1% → 35.7%
Median household incomeImproving
$56,616 (2015-2019) → $86,607 (2020-2024)
+53%5 yearsCensus table B19013US $65,712 → $81,604

What changed in five years

How each measure moved between two periods about five years apart, read against whether more or less is better, the published margin of error and the same change in other places.

Over about five years, Mathews, Louisiana improved on 3 of 10 measures with a comparison and declined on 0. 7 moved within the margin of error and 0 barely changed.

Earlier (2015-2019)
Latest (2020-2024)
Lower standingHigher standing

Position is the place's standing among cities and towns: further right is better, whichever way the measure counts.

Improved3

Rent / income−35 points51.0% → 16.5%
Bachelor's++14 points13.6% → 28.1%
Broadband+20 points76.9% → 96.5%

Declined0

No measure declined by more than its margin of error.

All 10 measures

Change of every measure of Mathews, Louisiana between two periods about five years apart
Measure	Before	After	Change	Reading	Favourable vs peers
Average commute time	25.0 min2015-2019	37.2 min2020-2024	+12.2 min	Within the margin of error	1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	13.6%2015-2019	28.1%2020-2024	+14 points	Improved	97%
Broadband subscriptions	76.9%2015-2019	96.5%2020-2024	+20 points	Improved	89%
Effective property tax rate	0.47%2015-2019	0.68%2020-2024	+0.2 points	Within the margin of error	3%
High school diploma or higher	79.5%2015-2019	89.4%2020-2024	+9.9 points	Within the margin of error	95%
Home price to income ratio	3.5×2015-2019	2.4×2020-2024	−1.1×	Within the margin of error	98%
Income inequality (Gini index)	0.4762015-2019	0.4232020-2024	−0.052	Within the margin of error	85%
Median household income	$56,6162015-2019	$86,6072020-2024	+53%	Within the margin of error	87%
Public transit commuters	0.0%2015-2019	0.0%2020-2024	0 points	Within the margin of error	60%
Rent as share of income	51.0%2015-2019	16.5%2020-2024	−35 points	Improved	100%

“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 14640 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.

Sources: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. Values are the latest and the one five years earlier of the same publisher dataset; datasets that changed publisher in between are never compared.

Survey estimates (American Community Survey) compare the two most recent 5-year windows that do not share years, so the margin of error of the difference holds. The 2015-2019 window predates the pandemic and 2020-2024 includes it.
A change counts only when it is larger than 1.645 times the square root of the two standard errors squared, summed (a 90% margin). Measures published without a margin must change by at least 5% to count.
“Against peers” compares the change with the same change in the 15651 cities and towns that have the same two periods. It describes how common a change is, not why it happened.
Standing is a percentile among the same places: 0 is the lowest value on the measure (or the worst when lower is better), 100 the best.

Cities and towns like Mathews, Louisiana five years ago that improved

The places whose measures looked most like those of Mathews, Louisiana in the earlier period, ranked by how many measures improved beyond the margin of error, minus how many declined. A comparison of published data, not a forecast and not advice.

For comparison, Mathews, Louisiana itself moved +26.5 points in standing on average over the same 9 measures (standings of all places average about zero).

How the ranking works

Similarity is the root-mean-square difference of standings in the earlier period over the measures most places have. Places are ranked by measures that improved beyond the margin of error minus those that declined (a count that estimation noise in small places cannot inflate), then by the mean change of standing over the measures a place has in both periods. Only places with more improvements than declines and a rise in standing are listed. Standings are relative, so a place can improve in absolute terms and still lose standing.

Who lives here

Age, race and education of residents, from the American Community Survey. Shares are of all residents (age), residents of every origin (race) or adults 25 and over (education).

Age and sex

1,598 residents (±340)

Men
Women

80 and over†
70–79†
60–69†

Income

How household income is spread, not just the middle: each bar is the share of households in that income range.

Household income

712 households (±128)

Mathews, Louisiana
Louisiana share

Under $25k14%†98
$25k–50k14%†101
$50k–75k

Homes

Who owns and who rents, what homes cost, and what the housing stock looks like.

Owners and renters

712 households (±128)

Mathews, Louisiana
Louisiana share

Own88%628
Rent12%†84

No change since 2015–2019 is larger than the margin of error.

† Wide margin of error (more than 30% of the estimate): read with care.

Table view

Getting to work

How workers travel to their job and how long it takes them.

How people get to work

733 workers (±187)

Mathews, Louisiana
Louisiana share

Drive alone75%551
Carpool15%†109
Public transit0.0%0

Jobs and pay

What the largest occupations here pay, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes pay by metro area, not by county or city. The metro area page lists its largest occupations and lets you look up any job.

Pay in the Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA

Local businesses

Employer businesses and sole proprietors by industry, per resident and against the state and the nation. Counts of businesses next to counts of people, not a measure of demand.

The Census Bureau publishes business counts by county, not by city, so these are the figures of Lafourche Parish, the county holding most of Mathews's residents.

Lafourche Parish has 1,685 employer establishments, 177 for every 10,000 residents (0.71× the US rate of 248; 0.75× Louisiana's), with 28,210 paid employees at an average annual pay of $66,778. The Census Bureau also counts 7,347 nonemployer businesses, mostly sole proprietors.

Establishments: 1,685; 7,347 nonemployers
Per 10,000 residents: 177; US 248 · Louisiana 236
Paid employees: 28,210
Average annual pay: $66,778; US $68,342

Employer establishments, employees, average pay and nonemployers of Lafourche Parish by industry, with the density per resident against the nation

Ambulatory health care services	144	15.1	0.73×Fewer than typical	1,782	$70,635	280
Restaurants and other eating places	121	12.7	0.69×Fewer than typical	2,223	$19,289	51
Specialty trade contractors	111	11.7	0.75×Fewer than typical	649	$55,508	685
Limited-service restaurants	59	6.2	0.77×Fewer than typical	1,101	$19,597	14
Building equipment contractors	56	5.9	0.98×About typical	255	$54,780	120
Offices of physicians	53	5.6	0.86×About typical	608	$94,984	46
Insurance agencies and brokerages	52	5.5	1.24×About typical	199	$64,487	115
Gasoline stations	46	4.8	1.49×More than typical	621	$23,502	—
Full-service restaurants	45	4.7	0.62×Fewer than typical	936	$19,924	23
Automotive repair and maintenance	41	4.3	0.86×About typical	156	$38,962	104
Construction of buildings	40	4.2	0.56×Fewer than typical	158	$63,741	238
Offices of other health practitioners	38	4	0.66×Fewer than typical	240	$38,471	111

Rank places for an industry Open Lafourche Parish

County Business Patterns (2023); Nonemployer Statistics (2024)

Per-resident figures divide by the population estimate of 2023: 95,199 residents here, 336,755,052 in the United States. County Business Patterns counts establishments in 2023; the Nonemployer Statistics count businesses in 2024.
“More than typical” is a density at least 1.25 times the nation's per resident, “fewer” at most 0.8 times, with at least 10 establishments. It compares counts of businesses with counts of people: it says nothing about demand, incomes, size, quality or profit, and visitors and commuters are not residents.
The Census Bureau adds noise to employment and payroll to protect confidentiality, and withholds some figures: an industry with few establishments can show employees or pay as unavailable.
Industries overlap: a narrower industry (full-service restaurants) is part of a broader one (restaurants), so the rows do not add up.
Industries follow the North American Industry Classification System; the two surveys use different editions (NAICS 2017 and 2022), which this page matches industry by industry.

Federal contracts performed here

In FY2026, an estimated $2.3M of federal contract obligations were for work performed in Mathews, Louisiana: $1,442 per resident (US $1,994).

Obligations: $2.3M; −11% vs FY2025
Per resident: $1,442; US $1,994
Sole-source: 6.4%; US 30%
Single offer: 41%; US 8.8%

A signal is a reason to look closer, not evidence of wrongdoing: most sole-source awards are lawful and justified.

Top buying agencies

Top recipients

Spending by fiscal year

220.3KFY2017
680.7KFY2018
892.3KFY2019
519.3KFY2020
991.3KFY2021
1.1MFY2022
1.6MFY2023
1.2M

Top industries (NAICS)

Engine, turbine, and power transmission equipment manufacturing · 3336$1.3M57%
Other fabricated metal product manufacturing · 3329$601.8K26%
Motor vehicle parts manufacturing · 3363$40K1.7%
Other miscellaneous manufacturing · 3399$39.6K1.7%
Other general purpose machinery manufacturing · 3339$36.9K1.6%
Aerospace product and parts manufacturing · 3364$34.7K

Source: Federal contract transactions (Federal Procurement Data System) (U.S. Department of the Treasury, USAspending.gov), data current to Oct 3, 2026, loaded Oct 3, 2026.

How this is estimated

Agencies report each contract action's place of performance as a county and a ZIP code. A ZIP code's money is split among the cities it covers by the share of its land inside each (Census 2020 ZIP code tabulation areas); the part outside city limits stays with the county.

The place of performance is what the contracting agency reports, often the contractor's office rather than where the work happens.
Shares are of land, not of people or businesses: a ZIP code that is mostly rural land but has its offices in town gives the town less than it should.
ZIP codes that are not mapped areas (post office boxes, the unique ZIP codes of large federal sites and companies) stay with their county, unless one city covers nearly all of it.
Counts of actions and awards include those only partly in Mathews, Louisiana, so they do not add up across cities.

Mathews, Louisiana's figures are part of those of Lafourche Parish, LA ($2.3B in FY2026), never added to them: 0.1% of that total.

Grants and other federal assistance are counted by county here, not split among cities: Mathews is mostly in Lafourche Parish.

See federal money in Lafourche Parish

Representation in Congress

Members serving today, with their record in the current Congress (party-unity votes cast with their caucus, roll calls missed). Not a grade.

Mathews, Louisiana is split between congressional districts: each representative is shown with the share of its residents in their district (current boundaries).

House

Senate

Bill CassidyR-

County

A city can lie in several counties. Some indicators are published for counties only: the page marks them.

Lafourche Parish25100% of residents

Metro area

The metro or micro area the city belongs to.

Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux, LA32

Other cities and towns in Lafourche Parish

Largest first.

Similar cities and towns

Closest indicator profiles across the country (no model: score distances).

Data and sources

Latest published value of each indicator; periods differ by source. Values flagged by their publisher are marked.

PLACES: Local Data for Better HealthCenters for Disease Control and Prevention · release 2025
Local Area Unemployment StatisticsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics · release 2025
American Community Survey 5-Year EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2017-2024
Population Estimates ProgramU.S. Census Bureau · release 2025
Small Area Health Insurance EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
Small Area Income and Poverty EstimatesU.S. Census Bureau · release 2024
County Health Rankings & RoadmapsUniversity of Wisconsin Population Health Institute · release 2022-2025+2026-03-supplement

JSON · /api/v1/places/2249170

Scores by category

Strengths · Weaknesses

Strengths

Weaknesses

Trends