Baton Rouge ranks among the top 20 cities in the nation for freelance workers to earn a decent living, according to consumer finance website NerdWallet.
The site’s analysts compiled the rankings by combing through data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2013 American Community Survey related to self-employment income, cost of living, and health care access and affordability. The analysts then weighed each factor and created a scoring system for the top cities.
NerdWallet ranked the cities on five specific factors: percentage of households with self-employment income; self-employment income per household earning self-employment income; percentage of population with direct-purchase health insurance; monthly health insurance cost; and median rent.
Baton Rouge just sneaked into the rankings at No. 19 with a score of 54.42, just above the 54.12 score earned by Fort Worth, Texas. Scottsdale, Arizona holds the top spot, followed by Los Angeles; Portland, Oregon; Austin, Texas; and Boise, Idaho.
Only 8.36% of Baton Rouge households recorded self-employment income in 2013, according to NerdWallet. That’s the second lowest among the top 20 cities in the rankings. But Baton Rouge’s median rent of $730 was third lowest among the 20.
Baton Rouge’s self-employment income per household was $37,828.95, according to the data. Scottsdale led that category with $66,309.09.
