Zachary, Louisiana

Area Profile

19,952 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Zachary, in East Baton Rouge Parish.

71out of 100
Area Score
Top 15% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 29% of 3,904 published cities66
SchoolsTop 11% of 2,668 published cities82
GrowthTop 5% of 2,973 published cities80
Housing affordabilityTop 30% of 4,223 published cities91
ClimateTop 25% of 4,223 published cities77
Physical resilience2674th of 4,182 published cities46
Access3790th of 4,226 published cities67
Economic stabilityTop 23% of 4,226 published cities73
The quick read

Unemployment is 4.8% and median household income $84,480, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published city profiles.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 182 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 44% on the prior year.

Rent takes 22% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.1 times that income.

At a glance

Population
19,952
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$84,480
Top 29% nationally
Density
743/sq mi
26.9 sq mi of land
Median age
38.3
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
East Baton Rouge Parish
Louisiana
Metro area
Baton Rouge, LA
Nearest major airport
LFT
58 mi · Lafayette Rgnl/Paul Fournet Fld
Median home value
$259,100
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.8% is lower than 32% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment grew 2.0% over the past year, to 219,698 employed residents.

33% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 73% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$17,522$84,480Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,633$45,997Top 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate8.5%Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute30.4 minTop 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher32.7%Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment219,698Top 27%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.1%Top 13%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)2.0%Top 6%June 2026
Labor force230,804Top 27%June 2026
Labor force participation71.6%Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$61,230Bottom 19%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$48,710Bottom 30%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 40%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.8%Top 32%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202491k84k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $84,480 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 — Baton Rouge, LA
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Cashiers9,130$27,110
Retail Salespersons9,020$30,070
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand8,760$36,450
Fast Food and Counter Workers8,490$23,650
Registered Nurses8,290$81,130
General and Operations Managers8,230$107,140

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 East Baton Rouge Parish, LA, which contains this city.

45% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 59% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.0 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
7
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.0
across all schools here
Math proficiency
45.2%
Top 15% in Louisiana
Reading proficiency
59.5%
Top 15% in Louisiana
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Zachary High SchoolZachary Community School District1,72615.7
Northwestern Middle SchoolZachary Community School District84113.645%70%
Copper Mill Elementary/Middle SchoolZachary Community School District83713.545%48%
Zachary Elementary SchoolZachary Community School District77813.446%61%
Rollins Place ElementaryZachary Community School District77413.1
Northwestern Elementary SchoolZachary Community School District33714.0
Zachary Early Learning CenterZachary Community School District20111.8

61.8% 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 $1,527 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
21.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,527
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$259,100
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.07Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate79.6%Top 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4627,999Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$160$1,527Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$11,847$259,100Top 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.7%Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate4.4%Bottom 26%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
80/ 100
Top 5% of 2,973 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 5% since 2020, reaching 20,370 in 2024.

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

At 9.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
182
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
9.1
Top 15% nationally
Year over year
+44%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202420k19k
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
2020202220232024202521697
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−37%).

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 42°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 61.9 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 51, in the Moderate band, and about 7 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 BATON ROUGE RYAN AP, 8.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index69.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation61.9"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low42°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10072024 calendar year
Median air quality index51.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
51
Moderate on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
69
90th percentile index
Days above 100
7
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

46 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneElevated
LightningModerate
DroughtModerate

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

East Baton Rouge Parish records 21.0 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 27.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 21.4 per 100,000 residents in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Homicide
21.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
27.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
21.4
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
12.9
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 East Baton Rouge 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 Zachary rather than Zachary 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 58 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Lafayette Rgnl/Paul Fournet FldLFT58 mi8,000 ft
Acadiana RgnlARA61 mi8,002 ft
Louis Armstrong New Orleans IntlMSY71 mi10,104 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
71
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Other cities in Baton Rouge, LA

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
Baton RougeEast Baton Rouge Parish222,77155vs Zachary
PrairievilleAscension Parish35,238vs Zachary
CentralEast Baton Rouge Parish29,78367vs Zachary
ShenandoahEast Baton Rouge Parish17,998vs Zachary
GonzalesAscension Parish13,10869vs Zachary
BakerEast Baton Rouge Parish12,25361vs Zachary
GardereEast Baton Rouge Parish12,223vs Zachary
Morgan CityAssumption Parish11,06457vs Zachary

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.

Compare

Put Zachary side by side with a similar place.

Zachary vs CaleraZachary vs Cheat LakeZachary vs BrandonZachary vs Lumberton

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 Zachary

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
7079130,385$78,26370