Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetLA-HOUMA-LA · Houma, LA 32,760 pop · income 27th pct · 35 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Houma
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Houma on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Marrero · lowest
45,633
Marrero · lowest
45,633 median HH income
22.0% of the leader · rank #1
Celoron · near
54,632
Celoron · near
54,632 median HH income
26.3% of the leader · rank #2
Alturas · near
54,634
Alturas · near
54,634 median HH income
26.3% of the leader · rank #3
Elmira Heights · near
54,634
Elmira Heights · near
54,634 median HH income
26.3% of the leader · rank #4
Houma · this city
54,637
Houma · this city
54,637 median HH income
26.3% of the leader · rank #5
Guthrie · near
54,640
Guthrie · near
54,640 median HH income
26.3% of the leader · rank #6
Los Gatos · highest
207,891
Los Gatos · highest
207,891 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Houma on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 32,760.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Houma places in the 27th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
27th
percentile, household income
45th
percentile, home value
16th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Houma, LA
32,760 people live in Houma, Louisiana - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Houma report a median income of $54,637 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 14.1%. Typical homes in Houma are valued around $207,900, and the median resident age is 35.1 years. Educational attainment runs 23.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 57.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 69.6°F with 65.4 inches of precipitation per year.
Living costs in Louisiana run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Louisiana scores 88.2 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,007 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Louisiana run around $212, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Houma report an average commute of 19.3 minutes, with 79.3% driving alone and 3.3% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 62.4 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Houma's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from within-city variation to climate and hazard context to housing and income to comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Houma, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Within-city variation
What can 35 Census tracts reveal inside Houma?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
PlainCities matches 35 Census tracts to this city.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 69.6°F, with 65.4 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Louisiana is 62.4 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
How far does income reach against housing in Houma?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Which cities make useful reference points for Houma?
Within Louisiana, the closest population matches are Marrero (31,866 residents, $45,633 income); Prairieville (35,010 residents, $115,610 income); Central (29,603 residents, $90,091 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Los Gatos, CA (32,773 residents); Menlo Park, CA (32,775 residents); Desert Hot Springs, CA (32,786 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Houma?
The NCES join finds 23 public schools within the city match. 23.0% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
23
Bachelor's degree+
23.0%
Poverty estimate
14.1%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.3%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.3 minutes.
Public transit
0.7%
Work from home
3.3%
Drive alone
79.3%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 13,957 workers age 16+.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,609 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.8% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-4.8%
2025 estimate
31,735
2020 estimate
33,344
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 14.1% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.2 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Louisiana average
D
City profile score · Houma, LA
46/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A+
88.2 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share D
23.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$54,637
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Houma profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 92/100 (A+) · 88.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 43/100 (D) · 23.0%
Household income: 27/100 (F) · $54,637
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.1%
How does Houma compare to other US cities?
Here's how Houma stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income27% higher than other cities
Home value45% pricier than other cities
Median rent16% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Houma against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Louisiana only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Louisiana-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Houma near the bottom of Louisiana's cities
Among the 477 Louisiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Houma ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Houma only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#189 of 426
56th percentile in Louisiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 477
0th percentile in Louisiana
Median Home Value
#98 of 419
77th percentile in Louisiana
Poverty Rate
#240 of 475
49th percentile in Louisiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#109 of 477
77th percentile in Louisiana
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Louisiana only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
27th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Houma's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$207,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 55% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. 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 ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Houma's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,077 of 15,516
More affordable than 35% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,796 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.8×, Houma sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,077 of 15,516 and #1,796 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$54,637Houma, LA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Houma, LA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Houma, LA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)23.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
32,760
Median Income
$54,637
Median Home Value
$207,900
Median Age
35.1
Poverty Rate
14.1%
Labor force participation
57.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
23.0%
Climate
Avg Temperature
69.6°F
Annual Precipitation
65.4"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
23
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Houma's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
33,344 residents
2021
33,136 residents
2022
32,106 residents
2023
31,908 residents
2024
31,786 residents
2025
31,735 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.3 minutes
Drive Alone
79.3%
Carpool
11.1%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
3.3%
Other
4.7%
Based on 13,957 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Louisiana statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $212
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Louisiana at $212 (electricity about $130 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Louisiana statewide averages, not a meter reading for Houma. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Louisiana's BEA cost-of-living index is 88.2 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Houma is $1,007/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Louisiana statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 62.4 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Louisiana statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Houma sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Houma compares to similar-size Louisiana cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.