Broussard, Louisiana

Area Profile

14,322 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Broussard, in Lafayette Parish.

70out of 100
Area Score
Top 18% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 13% of 3,904 cities measured75
SchoolsTop 19% of 2,668 cities measured76
GrowthTop 23% of 2,973 cities measured66
Housing affordabilityTop 8% of 4,223 cities measured100
ClimateTop 23% of 4,223 cities measured77
Physical resilience3243rd of 4,182 cities measured29
AccessTop 19% of 4,226 cities measured98
Economic stabilityTop 49% of 4,226 cities measured61
The quick read

Broussard ranks in the top 13% of published city profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 4.1% and median household income of $116,179.

Residential permitting has slowed: 124 units authorized over the past twelve months, 41% below the prior year.

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

At a glance

Population
14,322
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$116,179
Top 12% nationally
Density
788/sq mi
18.2 sq mi of land
Median age
35.1
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Lafayette Parish
Louisiana
Metro area
Lafayette, LA
Nearest major airport
LFT
5 mi · Lafayette Rgnl/Paul Fournet Fld
Median home value
$310,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.1% is lower than 59% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.5% over the past year, to 125,787 employed residents.

36% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 77% of measured US cities.

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

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$15,880$116,179Top 12%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$6,387$48,339Top 19%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate13.4%Top 41%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.3 minBottom 23%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher36.1%Top 23%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment125,787Top 36%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.5%Top 18%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.5%Top 19%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force131,218Top 36%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation77.1%Top 6%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$52,120Bottom 2%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$41,780Bottom 2%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.2%Top 44%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate4.1%Bottom 41%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
2021202220232024117k85k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $116,179 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 — Lafayette, LA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Home Health and Personal Care Aides5,200$21,400
Retail Salespersons5,010$28,600
Registered Nurses4,930$81,960
General and Operations Managers4,590$99,510
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand4,500$32,600
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,480$22,320

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 Lafayette Parish, LA, which contains this city.

45% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 60% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.4 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
3
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
45.1%
Top 17% in Louisiana
Reading proficiency
60.2%
Top 13% in Louisiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Katharine Drexel Elementary SchoolLafayette Parish58318.235%57%
Martial Billeaud Elementary SchoolLafayette Parish57215.554%62%
Broussard Middle SchoolLafayette Parish46515.547%62%

56.7% 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 $1,010 takes 10% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
10.4%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,010
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$310,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.67Bottom 43%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate83.3%Top 35%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4455,658Top 10%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$127$1,010Top 47%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$19,522$310,200Top 27%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income10.4%Bottom 5%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.7%Top 47%of 32,0012024 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 →
Development Momentum
66/ 100
Top 23% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 2 consecutive years, measured from 2020 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 13% since 2020, reaching 15,312 in 2024.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 8.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
124
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
8.7
Top 17% nationally
Year over year
−41%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202415k14k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
20202022202320242025323170
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−15%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 92°F and January a low of 44°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 62.8 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 51, in the Moderate band, and about 2 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station LAFAYETTE RGNL AP, 5.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.1"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index63.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation62.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low44°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10022024 calendar year
Median air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
51
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
63
90th percentile index
Days above 100
2
unhealthy for sensitive groups

A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.

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. Air quality is measured rather than modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.

Physical risk

29 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
LightningModerate
DroughtModerate
Inland floodingElevated
Coastal floodingModerate

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

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.

Lafayette Parish records 6.0 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 18.4 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 18.8 per 100,000 residents in Lafayette Parish.

Homicide
6.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
18.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
18.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.0
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 Lafayette 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 Broussard rather than Broussard 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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 5 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Lafayette Rgnl/Paul Fournet FldLFT5 mi8,000 ft
Acadiana RgnlARA8 mi8,002 ft
Chennault IntlCWF71 mi10,702 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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Area Score
70
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Other cities in Lafayette, LA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
LafayetteLafayette Parish121,715vs Broussard
YoungsvilleLafayette Parish17,42774vs Broussard
CarencroLafayette Parish11,61960vs Broussard
CrowleyAcadia Parish11,42243vs Broussard
AbbevilleVermilion Parish11,00351vs Broussard

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
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, once a calendar year is complete

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 Broussard

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
7051817,263$106,71071