Is Lafayette the car wash capital of Louisiana?
If there's one thing most people in Lafayette will agree on, it may be this: it sure does feel like there's a car wash on every street corner.
The apparent surplus of car washes — and more seem to be popping up all the time — is a pretty common theme in Lafayette's social media circles. There's a new development on Johnston Street? Must be a car wash. Anyone know what's being built in that empty lot? Oh, probably a car wash.
One thing about Lafayette they gone build a car wash
— yana 🤍 (@MeeyanaR) October 12, 2021
Lafayette is becoming one big car dealership and car wash
— Jonathan Hollier (@JonHollier) January 8, 2021
Us: we want more to do here.
Lafayette: what you said? Another furniture store? Ohhh another car wash?!— Megabucks💵 (@meganbethv) September 10, 2021
But is Lafayette truly the "Car Wash Capital of Louisiana," as many of us may think? It's not likely, federal economic data shows.
In 2020, the Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area had 26 car washing establishments with employees, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The BLS definition of a car wash includes detailing shops and detailing services, mobile car washes, self-service car washes and truck and bus washes, in addition to the conventional car wash.
The metro area has around 7.2 car washes per 100,000 residents, according to BLS and U.S. Census Bureau data. The metro area includes Lafayette, Acadia, Iberia, Vermilion and St. Martin Parishes.
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The BLS and Census data is not perfect and likely does not count all car washing establishments in any area, but it does provide a way to estimate how many types of a certain business can be found in a given area.
Louisiana has around 4.2 car washes per 100,000 people.
The Lafayette area actually has the third-most car washes per capita of Louisiana's nine metro areas. The Shreveport-Bossier area is second with around 9 car washes per 100,000 residents.
Hammond appears to be the car wash capital of Louisiana in terms of per capita figures, boasting 11 total establishments for its population of 101,500. That's about 10.8 car washes per 100,000 people.
In terms of raw totals, Lafayette ranks fourth in the state. The New Orleans metro area has the most car washes with 66, which is about 6.7 per 100,000 people. The Baton Rouge area 45 car washes in total, which is also about 6.7 per 100,000 people.
Shreveport-Bossier just edges out Louisiana with 27 total establishments in 2020.
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Monroe, Alexandria and Houma-Thibodaux have the least amount of car washes, both in terms of raw total and per capita. Monroe has 10 total car washes, good for 6.4 per 100,000 people. Alexandria has the fewest total car washes with six, giving it 5.2 per 100,000 people.
Houma-Thibodaux has the lowest car-wash-to-resident ratio of 5.1 per 100,000 people and eight total car washes.
The Hammond metro area also has the greatest economic reliance on car washes. The BLS uses a metric to show how much an area relies on an industry for its total number of jobs and wages. The U.S. average for any industry is 1.0.
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The Hammond MSA is around four times more reliant on car washes for jobs than the national average and nearly six times more reliant on car washes for wages. All the other metro areas are around or below the national average.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Is Lafayette the car wash capital of Louisiana?
