Belle Chasse, Louisiana

Area Profile

10,934 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Belle Chasse, in Plaquemines Parish.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signal: growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1954th of 3,904 published cities56
SchoolsTop 4% of 2,668 published cities89
Housing affordabilityTop 23% of 4,223 published cities94
ClimateTop 10% of 4,223 published cities83
Physical resilience3189th of 4,182 published cities30
Access2500th of 4,226 published cities89
Economic stabilityTop 34% of 4,226 published cities68
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.3% and median household income $115,012, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, coastal flooding and drought.

A major airport is 18 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
10,934
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$115,012
Top 12% nationally
Density
1,339/sq mi
8.2 sq mi of land
Median age
40.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Plaquemines Parish
Louisiana
Metro area
New Orleans-Metairie, LA
Nearest major airport
MSY
18 mi · Louis Armstrong New Orleans Intl
Median home value
$410,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.3% is lower than 51% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.7% over the past year, to 9,787 employed residents.

Household income is higher than at least 88% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$17,713$115,012Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,665$46,927Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate6.1%Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute29.1 minTop 38%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher29.8%Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment9,787Bottom 3%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-2.3%Bottom 16%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.7%Top 48%June 2026
Labor force10,231Bottom 3%June 2026
Labor force participation66.3%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$61,050Bottom 18%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,290Bottom 18%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 49%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.3%Bottom 49%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024115k81k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $115,012 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.
Largest occupations — New Orleans-Metairie, LA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons12,030$30,400
Registered Nurses11,530$81,850
General and Operations Managers10,670$105,110
Fast Food and Counter Workers10,110$25,470
Waiters and Waitresses10,050$16,640
Cashiers9,320$28,370

Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Plaquemines Parish, LA, which contains this city.

52% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 61% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.7 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
51.8%
Top 9% in Louisiana
Reading proficiency
60.7%
Top 11% in Louisiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Belle Chasse High SchoolPlaquemines Parish88313.2
Belle Chasse Academy · charterBelle Chasse Academy77312.558%73%
Belle Chasse Middle SchoolPlaquemines Parish65610.942%47%
Belle Chasse Elementary SchoolPlaquemines Parish54314.354%59%
Belle Chasse Primary SchoolPlaquemines Parish39513.6

56.6% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Louisiana’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,485 takes 15% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.6 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
15.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,485
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$410,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.56Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate79.8%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3624,573Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$193$1,485Top 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$34,727$410,000Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income15.5%Bottom 28%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.7%Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

Weather & climate

8 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 43°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 63.8 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NEW ORLEANS ALVIN CALLENDER FL, 3.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND8.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation63.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low43°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months81991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing29°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

30 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, coastal flooding and drought.

HurricaneHigh
Coastal floodingHigh
DroughtElevated

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, lightning, cold wave, tornado, earthquake, hail, inland flooding, wildfire, winter weather, landslide, ice storm, strong wind.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Plaquemines Parish records 12.9 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 19.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 26.8 per 100,000 residents in Plaquemines Parish.

Homicide
12.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
19.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
26.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Plaquemines Parish as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Belle Chasse rather than Belle Chasse itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 18 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louis Armstrong New Orleans IntlMSY18 mi10,104 ft
Stennis IntlHSA48 mi8,498 ft
Acadiana RgnlARA113 mi8,002 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Other cities in New Orleans-Metairie, LA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
New OrleansOrleans Parish371,85347vs Belle Chasse
MetairieJefferson Parish139,729vs Belle Chasse
KennerJefferson Parish64,90453vs Belle Chasse
MarreroJefferson Parish32,540vs Belle Chasse
LaplaceSt. John the Baptist Parish28,343vs Belle Chasse
TerrytownJefferson Parish24,726vs Belle Chasse
ChalmetteSt. Bernard Parish22,616vs Belle Chasse
HarveyJefferson Parish20,915vs Belle Chasse
GretnaJefferson Parish17,38950vs Belle Chasse
EstelleJefferson Parish16,341vs Belle Chasse
LulingSt. Charles Parish13,960vs Belle Chasse
River RidgeJefferson Parish13,312vs Belle Chasse

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

ZIP codes in Belle Chasse

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
7003716,639$98,983