AreaProfile

70122New Orleans, Louisiana

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 70122.

44
Area Score
Bottom 4% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5072nd of 6,210 published ZIP areas38
Schools3775th of 4,422 published ZIP areas24
Growth4335th of 5,428 published ZIP areas32
Housing affordability5972nd of 6,685 published ZIP areas47
ClimateTop 20% of 6,789 published ZIP areas78
Physical resilience4956th of 6,709 published ZIP areas33
AccessTop 48% of 6,791 published ZIP areas93
Economic stability5899th of 6,742 published ZIP areas34
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 5.5% and the Opportunity signal places 70122 in the bottom 18%.

Housing costs more relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles, with rent taking 29% of median household income.

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

At a glance

Population
35,253
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$49,455
Bottom 14% nationally
Density
5,623/sq mi
6.3 sq mi of land
Median age
41.4
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
New Orleans
Louisiana
Metro area
New Orleans-Metairie, LA
Nearest major airport
MSY
12 mi · Louis Armstrong New Orleans Intl
Median home value
$283,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.5% is lower than 14% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

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

37% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 76% of measured US ZIP areas.

Median household income of $49,455 is below 86% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$3,883$49,455Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,914$34,456Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate21.6%Top 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.3 minBottom 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher37.2%Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment166,805Top 25%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-1.5%Bottom 26%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.4%Top 20%June 2026
Labor force176,559Top 25%June 2026
Labor force participation59.3%Bottom 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$61,050Bottom 23%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$47,290Bottom 22%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 45%June 2026
Unemployment rate5.5%Top 14%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202449k41k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $49,455 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for New Orleans, LA, the city containing this ZIP code.

9% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 22% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
13
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
8.7%
Bottom 6% in Louisiana
Reading proficiency
21.8%
Bottom 17% in Louisiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Benjamin Franklin High School · charterBenjamin Franklin High School1,05615.5
McDonogh 35 Senior High School · charterMcDonogh 35 Senior High School85113.7
Arthur Ashe Charter School · charterArthur Ashe Charter School77815.310%22%
KIPP Believe · charterKIPP Believe71012.55%14%
John F. Kennedy High School · charterJohn F. Kennedy High School66514.8
Mary Bethune Elementary Literature/Technology · charterOrleans Parish65911.811%37%
Edward Hynes Charter School - UNO · charterEdward Hynes Charter School - UNO57713.4
Pierre A. Capdau S.T.E.A.M School · charterPierre A. Capdau S.T.E.A.M. School56514.58%13%
Audubon Charter Gentilly · charterAudubon Charter Gentilly44810.910%25%
Rooted School · charterRooted School15215.2
The NET 2 Charter High School · charterThe NET2 High School14123.5
Travis Hill SchoolOrleans Parish117

74.4% 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 $1,208 takes 29% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.7 times median household income here, well above the historic benchmark, at a level conventionally described as seriously unaffordable.

Rent as a share of income
29.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,208
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$283,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income5.74Top 11%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate59.5%Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±51117,179Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$58$1,208Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,989$283,900Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income29.3%Top 6%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate11.6%Top 48%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
32/ 100
Ranks 4335 of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

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

Units permitted
753
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.0
Bottom 41% nationally
Year over year
+20%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
39.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for New Orleans, LA, the city containing this ZIP code.

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.

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, 3.5 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
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
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals

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.

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 publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

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.

Crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source 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. Reported crime is also easy to misread: agency participation varies year to year, and a city that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate.
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 12 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Louis Armstrong New Orleans IntlMSY12 mi10,104 ft
Stennis IntlHSA44 mi8,498 ft
Acadiana RgnlARA109 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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Area Score
44
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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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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)
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

Profile recalculated August 29, 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.

70122 vs New Orleans

How this ZIP area compares with New Orleans as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

70122
New Orleans
Median household income
$49,455
vs
$56,631
Per capita income
$34,456
vs
$40,662
Population density
5,623/sq mi
vs
2,194/sq mi
Median home value
$283,900
vs
$315,700
Median gross rent
$1,208
vs
$1,251
Homeownership rate
59.5%
vs
51.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher
37.2%
vs
42.4%
Poverty rate
21.6%
vs
22.6%
Median age
41.4
vs
38.8

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.