Sulphur, Louisiana

Area Profile

20,775 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Sulphur, in Calcasieu Parish.

54out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 28% of 2,944 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity2387th of 3,904 cities measured51
SchoolsTop 34% of 2,668 cities measured64
Growth2295th of 2,973 cities measured34
Housing affordabilityTop 15% of 4,223 cities measured97
ClimateTop 26% of 4,223 cities measured76
Physical resilience3899th of 4,182 cities measured11
AccessTop 30% of 4,226 cities measured96
Economic stability3765th of 4,226 cities measured34
The quick read

Residential permitting has slowed: 34 units authorized over the past twelve months, 28% below the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 19% of median household income and the median home is 3.0 times it.

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

At a glance

Population
20,775
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,760
Bottom 42% nationally
Density
1,849/sq mi
11.2 sq mi of land
Median age
38.0
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Calcasieu Parish
Louisiana
Metro area
Lake Charles, LA
Nearest major airport
CWF
13 mi · Chennault Intl
Median home value
$182,900
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.0% is lower than 25% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 0.9% over the past year, to 83,036 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$6,200$61,760Bottom 42%of 29,5732024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,334$29,939Bottom 36%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate16.0%Top 33%of 31,9002024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute19.0 minBottom 14%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher16.9%Bottom 40%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Employment83,036Top 41%of 3,904June 2026
Employment change (3 years)1.8%Top 25%of 3,903June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.9%Top 13%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force87,361Top 41%of 3,904June 2026
Labor force participation58.2%Bottom 42%of 31,9332024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$56,630Bottom 7%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Median annual wage$45,700Bottom 7%of 3,6582025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)0.1%Top 49%of 3,904June 2026
Unemployment rate5.0%Top 25%of 3,904June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202462k51k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,760 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 — Lake Charles, LA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Cashiers2,840$27,480
Retail Salespersons2,620$28,780
Registered Nurses2,460$90,690
Fast Food and Counter Workers2,350$22,500
General and Operations Managers2,140$101,370
Home Health and Personal Care Aides2,140$23,000

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 publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Calcasieu Parish, LA, which contains this city.

34% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 49% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
11
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
33.9%
Top 50% in Louisiana
Reading proficiency
49.2%
Top 30% in Louisiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Sulphur High SchoolCalcasieu Parish1,91114.1
W. W. Lewis Middle SchoolCalcasieu Parish75712.427%52%
Maplewood ElementaryCalcasieu Parish64012.823%39%
E. K. Key Elementary SchoolCalcasieu Parish54611.937%45%
Frasch Elementary SchoolCalcasieu Parish52212.145%64%
W. T. Henning Elementary SchoolCalcasieu Parish36911.527%37%
LeBlanc Middle SchoolCalcasieu Parish36611.432%57%
Maplewood Middle SchoolCalcasieu Parish3199.737%42%
Vincent Settlement Elementary SchoolCalcasieu Parish28412.364%71%
Richard W. Vincent Elementary SchoolCalcasieu Parish28311.828%37%
Jake Drost School for Exceptional ChildrenCalcasieu Parish196.3

50.8% 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 $994 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.0 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
19.3%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$994
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$182,900
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.96Top 49%of 28,4732024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.6%Bottom 47%of 31,8432024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±59810,195Top 6%of 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$142$994Top 48%of 23,4322024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,009$182,900Bottom 49%of 29,3422024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.3%Top 45%of 23,2012024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate19.2%Top 25%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 →
Development Momentum
34/ 100
Ranks 2295 of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is broadly steady, measured from 2022 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 6% since 2020, reaching 20,572 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 1.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
34
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
1.6
Bottom 41% nationally
Year over year
−28%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202422k20k
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
20222023202420258237
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−50%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 92°F and January a low of 43°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 59.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 49, in the Good band, and about 4 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 LAKE CHARLES, 11.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index64.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation59.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low43°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10042024 calendar year
Median air quality index49.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
49
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
64
90th percentile index
Days above 100
4
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

11 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
TornadoElevated
Inland floodingElevated
HailModerate
DroughtModerate
Coastal floodingModerate

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

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.

Calcasieu Parish records 8.3 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 20.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 26.5 per 100,000 residents in Calcasieu Parish.

Homicide
8.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
20.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
26.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
17.7
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 Calcasieu 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 Sulphur rather than Sulphur 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 13 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Chennault IntlCWF13 mi10,702 ft
Lafayette Rgnl/Paul Fournet FldLFT82 mi8,000 ft
Acadiana RgnlARA89 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
54
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Other cities in Lake Charles, LA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Lake CharlesCalcasieu Parish81,14351vs Sulphur
Moss BluffCalcasieu Parish12,482vs Sulphur

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
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)
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 Sulphur

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
7066327,799$64,70755