Caddo Parish, LA

County Profile

230,004 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Caddo Parish, LA.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

54out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 22% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1052nd of 1,255 counties37
Schools813th of 973 counties24
Growth881st of 1,226 counties38
Housing affordability904th of 1,255 counties83
ClimateTop 45% of 1,254 counties70
Physical resilienceTop 36% of 1,255 counties71
AccessTop 11% of 1,255 counties97
Economic stability1136th of 1,255 counties31
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.0% and the Opportunity signal places Caddo Parish in the bottom 16%.

In the public schools here, 23% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.2 students for every teacher.

A major airport is 10 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
230,004
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$50,705
Bottom 15% nationally
Density
262/sq mi
879.5 sq mi of land
Median age
39.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Caddo Parish
Louisiana
Metro area
Shreveport-Bossier City, LA
Nearest major airport
SHV
10 mi · Shreveport Rgnl
Median home value
$175,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.0% is lower than 22% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 96,469 employed residents.

Median household income of $50,705 is below 85% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,788$50,705Bottom 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,425$33,434Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate22.4%Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute21.8 minBottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher26.0%Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment96,469Top 27%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.0%Bottom 33%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 38%June 2026
Labor force101,512Top 26%June 2026
Labor force participation56.9%Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 48%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.0%Top 22%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/067.83.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.0% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202451k43k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $50,705 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 — Shreveport-Bossier City, LA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Registered Nurses6,390$80,080
Retail Salespersons4,670$28,990
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand4,250$34,970
Fast Food and Counter Workers4,150$22,460
Cashiers3,920$25,760
General and Operations Managers3,450$98,610

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.

23% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 32% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.2 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
57
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
23.0%
Bottom 23% in Louisiana
Reading proficiency
32.1%
Bottom 12% in Louisiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Captain Shreve High SchoolCaddo Parish1,65817.8
C.E. Byrd High SchoolCaddo Parish1,51720.2
Walnut Hill Elementary/Middle SchoolCaddo Parish1,48015.312%29%
Turner Elementary Middle SchoolCaddo Parish1,43717.710%19%
Magnolia School of Excellence · charterCaddo Parish1,4301430.011%18%
Huntington High SchoolCaddo Parish1,34518.9
Linwood Public Charter SchoolRecovery School District-LDE1,09215.24%13%
Youree Dr. Middle Advanced Placement Magnet SchoolCaddo Parish99217.417%43%
Northwood High SchoolCaddo Parish98917.7
Caddo Parish Middle Magnet SchoolCaddo Parish97716.887%93%
Southwood High SchoolCaddo Parish97114.7
Caddo Parish Magnet High SchoolCaddo Parish86914.5

67.5% 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 $974 takes 23% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
23.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$974
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$175,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.47Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate60.2%Bottom 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±80112,612Top 9%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$19$974Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,195$175,700Bottom 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income23.1%Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate15.0%Top 47%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 →
Development Momentum
38/ 100
Ranks 881 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 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 fallen 5% since 2020, reaching 224,893 in 2024.

At 1.3 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
303
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.3
Bottom 22% nationally
Year over year
+68%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
27.1%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024237k225k
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
202020212022202320242025279184
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2020 (+5%).

Weather & climate

6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 95°F and January a low of 39°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 48.9 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 41, in the Good band, and one day a year passes 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

30°50°70°90°110°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SHREVEPORT DWTN AP, 8.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index57.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation48.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low39°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high95°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index41.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing37°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
41
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
57
90th percentile index
Days above 100
1
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

71 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are ice storm, hail and drought.

Ice stormElevated
DroughtElevated
HailElevated
Winter weatherModerate
HurricaneModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, strong wind, lightning, cold wave, inland flooding, tornado, earthquake, wildfire.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. 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.

Caddo Parish records 16.3 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 25.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 16.8 per 100,000 residents in Caddo Parish.

Homicide
16.3
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
25.2
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
16.8
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
18.1
per 100,000 residents

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 Caddo 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 Caddo Parish rather than Caddo Parish 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 10 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Shreveport RgnlSHV10 mi8,348 ft
East Texas RgnlGGG50 mi10,000 ft
Tyler Pounds RgnlTYR90 mi8,334 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.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
54
Your Score

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

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
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.

Cities in Caddo Parish, LA