Metairie, Louisiana

Area Profile

139,729 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Metairie, in Jefferson Parish.

Area Score unavailable

Missing required signals: opportunity, growth. AreaProfile withholds a score rather than inferring the missing dimensions.

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
SchoolsTop 35% of 2,668 cities measured63
Housing affordability2131st of 4,223 cities measured80
ClimateTop 23% of 4,223 cities measured77
Physical resilience3154th of 4,182 cities measured31
AccessTop 40% of 4,226 cities measured95
Economic stability2569th of 4,226 cities measured55
The quick read

In the public schools here, 36% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.6 students for every teacher.

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

A major airport is 5 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
139,729
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$73,042
Top 42% nationally
Density
6,033/sq mi
23.2 sq mi of land
Median age
41.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Jefferson Parish
Louisiana
Metro area
New Orleans-Metairie, LA
Nearest major airport
MSY
5 mi · Louis Armstrong New Orleans Intl
Median home value
$327,500
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

41% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 82% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$3,784$73,042Top 42%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,254$46,765Top 21%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.5%Top 44%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.3 minBottom 32%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher41.2%Top 18%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Labor force participation64.5%Top 36%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$61,050Bottom 18%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,290Bottom 18%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202473k66k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $73,042 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.

36% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 44% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.6 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
18
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
35.8%
Top 35% in Louisiana
Reading proficiency
43.9%
Top 46% in Louisiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
East Jefferson High SchoolJefferson Parish1,38119.7
Haynes Academy School for Advanced StudiesJefferson Parish87216.898%98%
J.D. Meisler Middle SchoolJefferson Parish67920.017%32%
John Q. Adams Middle SchoolJefferson Parish65816.422%42%
Bissonet Plaza SchoolJefferson Parish62413.618%28%
Phoebe Hearst SchoolJefferson Parish60212.318%22%
Rudolph Matas SchoolJefferson Parish60012.836%48%
J.C. Ellis SchoolJefferson Parish58710.939%47%
Alice Birney Elementary SchoolJefferson Parish57911.822%25%
T.H. Harris Middle SchoolJefferson Parish56314.18%27%
Harold Keller Elementary SchoolJefferson Parish55010.425%27%
Marie B. Riviere Elementary SchoolJefferson Parish5269.732%32%

58.5% 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 $1,175 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 4.5 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
4.5×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,175
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$327,500
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income4.48Top 20%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate62.1%Bottom 24%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±1,11266,355Top 1%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$17$1,175Top 34%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$6,997$327,500Top 25%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.3%Top 45%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate7.7%Bottom 41%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 →

No building-permit activity is published for this location by the Census Building Permits Survey.

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 46°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 63.3 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 46, 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 INTL AP, 4.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.6"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation63.3"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low46°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10012024 calendar year
Median air quality index46.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing30°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
46
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
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

31 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
Inland floodingModerate
Coastal floodingModerate
DroughtModerate

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

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.

Jefferson Parish records 8.8 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 13.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 29.6 per 100,000 residents in Jefferson Parish.

Homicide
8.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
13.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
29.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.6
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 Jefferson 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 Metairie rather than Metairie 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 5 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louis Armstrong New Orleans IntlMSY5 mi10,104 ft
Stennis IntlHSA50 mi8,498 ft
Acadiana RgnlARA102 mi8,002 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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Other cities in New Orleans-Metairie, LA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
New OrleansOrleans Parish371,85347vs Metairie
KennerJefferson Parish64,90453vs Metairie
MarreroJefferson Parish32,540vs Metairie
LaplaceSt. John the Baptist Parish28,343vs Metairie
TerrytownJefferson Parish24,726vs Metairie
ChalmetteSt. Bernard Parish22,616vs Metairie
HarveyJefferson Parish20,915vs Metairie
GretnaJefferson Parish17,38950vs Metairie
EstelleJefferson Parish16,341vs Metairie
LulingSt. Charles Parish13,960vs Metairie
River RidgeJefferson Parish13,312vs Metairie
WoodmereJefferson Parish11,879vs Metairie

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
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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 Metairie

5 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
7000339,344$76,261
7000138,950$67,923
7000524,088$89,194
7000219,426$65,436
7000616,170$76,505