Orleans Parish, LA

County Profile

371,853 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Orleans 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.

46out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 5% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity936th of 1,255 counties42
Schools758th of 973 counties28
Growth1038th of 1,226 counties30
Housing affordability1202nd of 1,255 counties55
ClimateTop 10% of 1,254 counties78
Physical resilience1017th of 1,255 counties33
AccessTop 33% of 1,255 counties88
Economic stability1120th of 1,255 counties32
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.5% and the Opportunity signal places Orleans Parish in the bottom 25%.

Buying strains local incomes far more than renting does — the median home is 5.6 times median household income, against a historic benchmark near three — while rent takes 27% of it.

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

At a glance

Population
371,853
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$56,631
Bottom 27% nationally
Density
2,194/sq mi
169.5 sq mi of land
Median age
38.8
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Orleans Parish
Louisiana
Metro area
New Orleans-Metairie, LA
Nearest major airport
MSY
20 mi · Louis Armstrong New Orleans Intl
Median home value
$315,700
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.5% is lower than 12% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.4% over the past year, to 166,805 employed residents.

42% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 93% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$1,781$56,631Bottom 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$782$40,662Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate22.6%Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.5 minBottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher42.4%Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment166,805Top 17%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.5%Bottom 27%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.4%Top 23%June 2026
Labor force176,559Top 17%June 2026
Labor force participation60.7%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 43%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.5%Top 12%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/06103.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.5% 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
202120222023202457k46k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $56,631 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.

20% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 33% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.1 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
72
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.1
across all schools here
Math proficiency
20.1%
Bottom 12% in Louisiana
Reading proficiency
33.2%
Bottom 19% in Louisiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
The Willow School · charterThe Willow School2,22516.080%90%
Morris Jeff Community School · charterMorris Jeff Community School1,44212.623%39%
Warren Easton Charter High School · charterWarren Easton Charter Foundation Inc.1,13817.5
Edna Karr High School · charterEdna Karr High School1,09714.6
International School of Louisiana · charterInternational School of Louisiana1,07414.727%46%
Benjamin Franklin High School · charterBenjamin Franklin High School1,05615.5
Bricolage Academy · charterBricolage Academy96515.837%51%
KIPP Morial · charterKIPP Ernest N. Dutch Morial95112.010%20%
New Orleans Military & Maritime Academy · charterNew Orleans Military & Maritime Academy94511.18%22%
Audubon Charter School · charterAudubon Charter School93714.030%58%
KIPP East · charterKIPP East Community Primary92112.411%21%
Harriet Tubman Charter School · charterHarriet Tubman Charter School90111.35%16%

75.0% 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 $1,251 takes 27% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.6 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
26.5%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.6×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,251
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$315,700
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.57Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate51.2%Bottom 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±155195,552Top 5%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$22$1,251Top 15%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,417$315,700Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income26.5%Top 2%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate20.3%Top 26%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
30/ 100
Ranks 1038 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, 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 362,701 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward after moving the other way the year before.

At 2.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
753
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.0
Bottom 35% nationally
Year over year
+20%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
39.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024383k363k
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
2020202120222023202420252k710
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−41%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 47°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 60.1 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.

40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station NEW ORLEANS LAKEFRONT AP, 5.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index57.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation60.1"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low47°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index41.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°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

33 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
DroughtModerate

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

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.

Orleans Parish records 27.2 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 31.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 52.5 per 100,000 residents in Orleans Parish.

Homicide
27.2
per 100,000 residents
Firearm deaths, all intents
31.6
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
52.5
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
13.2
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 Orleans 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 Orleans Parish rather than Orleans 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 20 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louis Armstrong New Orleans IntlMSY20 mi10,104 ft
Stennis IntlHSA36 mi8,498 ft
Mobile RgnlMOB110 mi8,502 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
46
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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 Orleans Parish, LA