City safety & data profile

LafayetteLA

Lafayette, LA is a 121K-resident city in Lafayette Parish with a median household income of $61,915.

Lafayette Parish, Louisiana. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Lafayette, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Lafayette has a population larger than 94% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $257,000, and 7 hospitals serving the surrounding area.

Data updated 2026-09-04

121K
Population (place)
Top 6%
By size
$61,915
Median income (place)
$257,000
Median home (place)
18.3%
Poverty rate (place)
My saved cities

The read on Lafayette

Lafayette posts a median household income higher than 25% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 1 recent safety alert is on record and 7 hospitals serve the Lafayette area.

Bottom 26%
by median income, US cities
1
safety alert on record
7
hospitals in & near Lafayette

Where Lafayette income ranks nationally

Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)

$61,915 Bottom 25% higher than 25% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles

Lafayette $0 $260,000 every profiled place, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year

Largest cities in LA

Population among 60 LA places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.

residents

What this shows New Orleans is the largest LA city on this list; Broussard leads median income.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

Highest median incomes in LA

Median household income among the same 60-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.

median

What this shows Broussard posts the highest place-level median income in LA; New Orleans is largest by headcount.

Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) As of 2024 ACS 5-year

The quick read

Reading Lafayette, LA beyond the headline numbers

Lafayette sits inside Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, at roughly 30.22°N, -92.02°W. Population 121,374, $61,915 median household income. Median home value $257,000, median rent $1,100. Poverty rate 18.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.

7 hospitals in/around Lafayette, 3/5 avg rating, 3 with an ER.

18.3% of Lafayette, LA residents live below the poverty line, placing it in the hardest-hit quarter of reporting cities. Read every median on this page against that: half the households are above it, and a large minority are far below.

A median home in Lafayette runs about 4.2 times median household income, above the midpoint. Multiples in this range usually mean buyers are arriving from outside the local wage base.

Remote work covers 9.9% of Lafayette workers, under the midpoint for reporting cities.

Among the CDC measures on this page, high blood pressure departs furthest from its peer median: 39.9% in Lafayette, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.

Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Lafayette from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.

Population (place)
121,374
Lafayette · Census Place
Median Income (place)
$61,915
-31% vs avg
Median Home Value (place)
$257,000
-38% vs avg
Median Age (place)
36.9
years · ACS place

10-Year Trends 2013–2024

County-level trend (Lafayette Parish): Lafayette's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.

20132024
Population
248K+10%
Median Income
$67,451+31%
Median Home Value
$242,900+49%
Poverty Rate
17.1%+2%
Unemployment
5.1%-19%

Economics

Economics indicators for Lafayette, LA
IndicatorValue
Median Rent
$1,100/mo
Poverty Rate
18.3% +48% vs avg
Unemployment 5.2%
Bachelor's Degree+ 41.1%
Work From Home 9.9%
Public Transit 0.5%

Population

White 57.1%
African American 29.1%
Asian 2.2%
Two or More Ethnicities 3.5%

Health Profile 15 measures

Health Indicators

High Blood Pressure
39.9%
Short Sleep Duration
37.3%
Obesity
34.5%
Physical Inactivity
25.5%
Frequent Mental Distress
18.4%
Binge Drinking
17.8%
Current Smoking
16.1%
Diabetes
14%
Frequent Physical Distress
13.9%
Current Asthma
9.9%

Preventive Care

Dental Visit 59.3%
Annual Checkup 82.2%

Other Measures

Lack of Health Insurance
8.3%
Coronary Heart Disease
6.9%
Stroke
4.1%

Hospitals 7 total

Rating Distribution
★★★★★
0
★★★★
0
★★★
3
★★
0
0
Average Rating
3/5
Total Hospitals
7
With ER
3
OCHSNER LAFAYETTE GENERAL MEDICAL CENTER
LAFAYETTE · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★☆☆
OCHSNER UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL AND CLINICS
LAFAYETTE · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★☆☆
OUR LADY OF LOURDES REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER, INC
LAFAYETTE · Acute Care Hospitals · ER
★★★☆☆

What alerts and safety updates affect Lafayette? 1

City alert dispatch desk

Sheet LA-LAFAYETTE-LA · Lafayette

Lafayette: 16 tagged alerts; lead category NWS weather alert.

  • VOL-ACTIVE 16 on record
  • WX-LED 100% weather
  • DESK-MIX NOAA
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ El Paso
  • RANK-MID #52 tagged volume

Tagged alert mix: Lafayette

Published notices carrying this city slug or location tag

Value

What this shows 16 tagged notices on record for Lafayette.

Source Areazine publication corpus As of Live tagged feed

Nearest tagged-volume peer: El Paso, TX (16 tagged · Δ0)

Counts reflect published articles tagged to Lafayette; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Louisiana state hubs · Methodology

Cities with a similar tagged alert volume 4

Nearest published-notice counts on Areazine (16 tagged here), a feed-density peer set, not an ACS demographic match.

Read with this city profile

Frequently Asked Questions 6

What is the population of Lafayette, LA?
Lafayette, LA has a population of 121,374 people, located in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana.
What is the median household income in Lafayette?
The median household income in Lafayette, LA is $61,915 per year, per the U.S. Census ACS. The poverty rate is 18.3%.
What is the median home value in Lafayette?
The median home value in Lafayette, LA is $257,000. Median rent is $1,100/month.
What are the top health concerns in Lafayette?
The top health indicators in Lafayette include High Blood Pressure (39.9%), Short Sleep Duration (37.3%), Obesity (34.5%). Data from CDC PLACES.
How many hospitals are in Lafayette?
Lafayette has 7 hospitals with an average rating of 3/5 stars. 3 have emergency departments.
What is the median age in Lafayette?
The median age in Lafayette, LA is 36.9 years. 41.1% of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher.

Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8

Two ACS-derived peer sets for Lafayette, both outside Louisiana so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.

Similar poverty rate

Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside LA (18.3% here).

Similar median income

Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside LA ($61,915 here).

Compare Lafayette with another city

Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.

Quick picks:

Nearby Cities 8

Using Lafayette's profile

Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.

  • Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Lafayette area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
  • Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
  • Compare Lafayette against Louisiana peers on any ranking lens. Explore Louisiana

Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.

Data Sources

All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Lafayette Parish) where that is the smallest published unit.

Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.