St. Tammany Parish, LA

County Profile

272,421 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for St. Tammany 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.

69out of 100
Area Score
Top 27% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 27% of 1,255 counties measured66
SchoolsTop 3% of 973 counties measured90
GrowthTop 26% of 1,226 counties measured63
Housing affordability706th of 1,255 counties measured91
ClimateTop 12% of 1,254 counties measured78
Physical resilience1053rd of 1,255 counties measured30
AccessTop 49% of 1,255 counties measured82
Economic stabilityTop 34% of 1,255 counties measured72
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.5% and median household income $81,202, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.

1,090 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 8% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.

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

At a glance

Population
272,421
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$81,202
Top 17% nationally
Density
322/sq mi
845.3 sq mi of land
Median age
40.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
St. Tammany Parish
Louisiana
Metro area
Slidell-Mandeville-Covington, LA
Nearest major airport
HSA
30 mi · Stennis Intl
Median home value
$284,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.5% is lower than 38% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.9% over the past year, to 126,491 employed residents.

38% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 89% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$1,958$81,202Top 17%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,249$43,364Top 16%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.4%Bottom 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute33.7 minTop 10%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher37.7%Top 11%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment126,491Top 21%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.8%Top 44%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.9%Top 17%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force132,415Top 21%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation62.9%Top 28%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 48%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate4.5%Top 38%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/064.62.4
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.5% 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
202120222023202481k71k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $81,202 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 — Slidell-Mandeville-Covington, LA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons3,470$29,280
Registered Nurses3,190$81,160
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,970$23,380
Waiters and Waitresses2,520$15,080
General and Operations Managers2,470$102,450
Cashiers2,330$27,590

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.

46% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 58% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
56
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
46.0%
Top 8% in Louisiana
Reading proficiency
58.0%
Top 8% in Louisiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Mandeville High SchoolSt. Tammany Parish2,00614.5
Slidell High SchoolSt. Tammany Parish1,65414.3
Covington High SchoolSt. Tammany Parish1,60014.5
Northshore High SchoolSt. Tammany Parish1,51815.0
Joseph B. Lancaster Elementary SchoolSt. Tammany Parish1,48016.459%75%
Fontainebleau High SchoolSt. Tammany Parish1,45113.3
Salmen High SchoolSt. Tammany Parish1,09114.9
Madisonville Elementary SchoolSt. Tammany Parish1,01012.0
W.L. Abney ElementarySt. Tammany Parish93613.830%39%
Little Oak Middle SchoolSt. Tammany Parish84714.451%62%
Lakeshore High SchoolSt. Tammany Parish83512.7
Fontainebleau Junior High SchoolSt. Tammany Parish78414.337%63%

44.4% 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 $1,332 takes 20% 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
19.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,332
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$284,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income3.50Top 31%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate78.9%Top 25%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±77113,911Top 8%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$35$1,332Top 12%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$5,856$284,000Top 22%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.7%Top 23%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.8%Bottom 18%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
63/ 100
Top 26% 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 grown 5% since 2020, reaching 277,615 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 4.0 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
1,090
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
4.0
Top 38% nationally
Year over year
+8%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
20202021202220232024278k265k
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
2020202120222023202420252k830
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−34%).

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 41°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 61.9 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 39, 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°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SLIDELL AP, 9.0 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index57.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation61.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low41°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index39.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
39
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

30 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
Inland floodingHigh
Coastal floodingModerate
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, lightning, cold wave, wildfire, hail, tornado, strong wind, winter weather, ice storm, earthquake, 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. Tammany Parish records 4.4 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 16.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 20.7 per 100,000 residents in St. Tammany Parish.

Homicide
4.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
16.0
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
20.7
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
16.7
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 St. Tammany 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. Tammany Parish rather than St. Tammany 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 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

2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 30 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Stennis IntlHSA30 mi8,498 ft
Louis Armstrong New Orleans IntlMSY34 mi10,104 ft
Mobile RgnlMOB104 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
69
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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.