St. Bernard Parish, LA

County Profile

44,419 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for St. Bernard 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.

53out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 19% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity1083rd of 1,255 counties measured35
SchoolsTop 34% of 973 counties measured64
Growth905th of 1,226 counties measured37
Housing affordability859th of 1,255 counties measured85
ClimateTop 9% of 1,254 counties measured78
Physical resilience1029th of 1,255 counties measured32
AccessTop 48% of 1,255 counties measured82
Economic stability1018th of 1,255 counties measured39
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.2% and the Opportunity signal places St. Bernard Parish in the bottom 14%.

In the public schools here, 38% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.2 students for every teacher.

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

At a glance

Population
44,419
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$58,651
Bottom 31% nationally
Density
118/sq mi
377.5 sq mi of land
Median age
36.2
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
St. Bernard Parish
Louisiana
Metro area
New Orleans-Metairie, LA
Nearest major airport
HSA
33 mi · Stennis Intl
Median home value
$202,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.2% is lower than 17% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.2% over the past year, to 18,723 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$4,431$58,651Bottom 31%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,149$30,406Bottom 27%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per-capita personal income$43,885Bottom 5%of 1,2062023
Poverty rate23.0%Top 10%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute33.3 minTop 11%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher17.6%Bottom 25%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment18,723Bottom 21%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.6%Bottom 38%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.2%Top 28%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force19,749Bottom 21%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation59.6%Top 45%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 43%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate5.2%Top 17%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/068.83.5
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.2% 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
202120222023202459k53k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $58,651 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.

38% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 43% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
37.7%
Top 27% in Louisiana
Reading proficiency
42.9%
Top 46% in Louisiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Chalmette High SchoolSt. Bernard Parish2,19314.8
N.P. Trist Middle SchoolSt. Bernard Parish76716.732%42%
Lacoste Elementary SchoolSt. Bernard Parish62115.547%48%
Joseph J. Davies Elementary SchoolSt. Bernard Parish59312.960%55%
Arlene Meraux Elementary SchoolSt. Bernard Parish58317.137%41%
Arabi Elementary SchoolSt. Bernard Parish56715.838%39%
Andrew Jackson Middle SchoolSt. Bernard Parish54614.017%42%
J.F. Gauthier SchoolSt. Bernard Parish50016.150%49%
Chalmette Elementary SchoolSt. Bernard Parish46711.134%38%
W. Smith Jr. Elementary SchoolSt. Bernard Parish33310.724%25%
St. Bernard Middle SchoolSt. Bernard Parish31912.837%52%
C.F. Rowley Alternative SchoolSt. Bernard Parish1036.410%10%

62.9% 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 $1,082 takes 22% 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
22.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,082
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$202,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.45Top 33%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate70.1%Bottom 29%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4218,248Top 38%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$39$1,082Top 24%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,814$202,500Top 43%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income22.1%Top 11%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.1%Bottom 35%of 3,2222024 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
37/ 100
Ranks 905 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, 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 2% since 2020, reaching 44,783 in 2024.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

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

At 2.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
99
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.2
Bottom 39% nationally
Year over year
−15%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202445k44k
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
202020212022202320242025340112
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−66%).

Weather & climate

7 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 42°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 62.8 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 45, in the Good 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 GULFPORT - BILOXI AP, 35.8 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation62.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low42°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10022024 calendar year
Median air quality index45.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
45
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
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

32 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
Coastal floodingElevated
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, heat wave, cold wave, tornado, wildfire, hail, earthquake, inland flooding, winter weather, ice storm, 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 — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

St. Bernard Parish records 12.0 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 18.5 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 49.5 per 100,000 residents in St. Bernard Parish.

Homicide
12.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
18.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
49.5
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
11.0
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 St. Bernard 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 St. Bernard Parish rather than St. Bernard 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
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
Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 33 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Stennis IntlHSA33 mi8,498 ft
Louis Armstrong New Orleans IntlMSY60 mi10,104 ft
Mobile RgnlMOB81 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
53
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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)
IncomeU.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis
Regional price parities and county personal income
2023Annually, each December
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 St. Bernard Parish, LA