City safety & data profile
Lake CharlesLA
Lake Charles, LA is a 76K-resident city in Calcasieu Parish with a median household income of $59,235.
Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Lake Charles, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Lake Charles has a population larger than 89% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, a median home value of $214,300, and 5 hospitals serving the surrounding area.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 76K
- Population (place)
- Top 11%
- By size
- $59,235
- Median income (place)
- $214,300
- Median home (place)
- 23.3%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Lake Charles
Lake Charles posts a median household income higher than 21% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks, where 5 hospitals serve the Lake Charles area.
- Bottom 22%
- by median income, US cities
- 5
- hospitals in & near Lake Charles
Where Lake Charles income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$59,235 Bottom 21% higher than 21% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
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.
- New Orleans
New Orleans, LA
362,701 residents
- Baton Rouge
Baton Rouge, LA
227,470 residents
- Shreveport
Shreveport, LA
187,593 residents
- Metairie 138,481
Metairie, LA
138,481 residents
- Lafayette 121,374
Lafayette, LA
121,374 residents
- Lake Charles 76,070
Lake Charles, LA
76,070 residents
- Bossier City 68,094
Bossier City, LA
68,094 residents
- Kenner 67,091
Kenner, LA
67,091 residents
- Monroe 49,598
Monroe, LA
49,598 residents
- Alexandria 47,889
Alexandria, LA
47,889 residents
What this shows New Orleans is the largest LA city on this list; Broussard leads median income.
Highest median incomes in LA
Median household income among the same 60-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Broussard
Broussard, LA
$116,179 median
- Belle Chasse
Belle Chasse, LA
$115,012 median
- Shenandoah
Shenandoah, LA
$107,021 median
- Youngsville
Youngsville, LA
$105,876 median
- Prairieville
Prairieville, LA
$104,923 median
- Mandeville
Mandeville, LA
$94,405 median
- Moss Bluff
Moss Bluff, LA
$92,036 median
- Destrehan
Destrehan, LA
$90,509 median
- Central
Central, LA
$89,554 median
- Zachary
Zachary, LA
$84,480 median
What this shows Broussard posts the highest place-level median income in LA; New Orleans is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Lake Charles, LA beyond the headline numbers
Lake Charles sits inside Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana, at roughly 30.21°N, -93.20°W. Population 76,070, $59,235 median household income. Median home value $214,300, median rent $1,109. Poverty rate 23.3%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
5 hospitals in/around Lake Charles, 3/5 avg rating, 2 with an ER.
23.3% of Lake Charles, 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.
The median home in Lake Charles costs roughly 3.6 times median household income, below the midpoint for reporting cities, so ownership remains reachable on a typical local wage.
Only 5% of Lake Charles workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.
Among the CDC measures on this page, high blood pressure departs furthest from its peer median: 44.5% in Lake Charles, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Public transit carries 0.1% of Lake Charles workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Lake Charles 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.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Calcasieu Parish): Lake Charles'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.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 23.3% +88% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 6.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 29.1% |
| Work From Home | 5% |
| Public Transit | 0.1% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
Hospitals 5 total
What alerts and safety updates affect Lake Charles?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Lake Charles right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet LA-LAKE-CHARLES · Lake Charles
Lake Charles: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Lake Charles; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Louisiana state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 6
What is the population of Lake Charles, LA? ▼
What is the median household income in Lake Charles? ▼
What is the median home value in Lake Charles? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Lake Charles? ▼
How many hospitals are in Lake Charles? ▼
What is the median age in Lake Charles? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Lake Charles, both outside Louisiana so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside LA (23.3% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside LA ($59,235 here).
Compare Lake Charles 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.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Lake Charles'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 Lake Charles 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 Lake Charles 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 (Calcasieu 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.