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Place dossier plate
SheetLA-METAIRIE-LA · Metairie, LA 138,995 pop · income 54th pct · 13 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 Metairie
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Metairie on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Carolina zona… · lowest
35,843
Carolina zona… · lowest
35,843 median HH income
30.6% of the leader · rank #1
Holtville · near
73,250
Holtville · near
73,250 median HH income
62.6% of the leader · rank #2
Manchester · near
73,250
Manchester · near
73,250 median HH income
62.6% of the leader · rank #3
Avilla · near
73,250
Avilla · near
73,250 median HH income
62.6% of the leader · rank #4
Metairie · this city
73,256
Metairie · this city
73,256 median HH income
62.6% of the leader · rank #5
Old Forge · near
73,258
Old Forge · near
73,258 median HH income
62.6% of the leader · rank #6
Orange · highest
116,945
Orange · highest
116,945 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 Metairie 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: 138,995.
Nationally, Metairie sits in the 54th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
54th
percentile, household income
66th
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: Metairie, LA
Metairie is a mid-sized U.S. city in Louisiana, home to 138,995 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $73,256 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.0%. Home values in Metairie run a median of $308,900, and the median resident age is 41.5 years. Educational attainment runs 39.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 61.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 19 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Living costs in Louisiana run below the national norm: the state registers 88.2 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,007 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $212 across Louisiana, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 62.4 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Metairie'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 schools and households to housing and income to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Metairie, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Metairie?
The NCES join finds 19 public schools within the city match. 39.9% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Metairie?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.0%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
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 13 Census tracts to this city.
Which cities make useful reference points for Metairie?
Within Louisiana, the closest population matches are Lafayette (121,537 residents, $61,454 income); Shreveport (183,483 residents, $48,465 income); Lake Charles (81,679 residents, $56,864 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Carolina zona urbana, PR (139,051 residents); Orange, CA (138,723 residents); Warren, MI (138,128 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Metairie?
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 76.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.7%
Work from home
10.1%
Drive alone
76.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 67,974 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 9.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.2 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Louisiana average
B-
City profile score · Metairie, LA
65/100
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 B+
39.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C-
$73,256
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
9.0%
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).
Metairie profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 92/100 (A+) · 88.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 75/100 (B+) · 39.9%
Household income: 53/100 (C-) · $73,256
Poverty rate: 44/100 (D) · 9.0%
How does Metairie compare to other US cities?
Where Metairie sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income54% higher than other cities
Home value66% 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 Metairie 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 Metairie near the bottom of Louisiana's cities
Among the 477 Louisiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Metairie ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Metairie only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#86 of 426
80th percentile in Louisiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 477
0th percentile in Louisiana
Median Home Value
#18 of 419
96th percentile in Louisiana
Poverty Rate
#321 of 475
32nd percentile in Louisiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#23 of 477
95th 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
54th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Metairie's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$308,90034th percentilemore affordable than 34% 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
Metairie's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,289 of 15,516
More affordable than 27% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#340 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 4.2×, Metairie sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,289 of 15,516 and #340 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$73,256Metairie, LA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Metairie, 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 Metairie, LA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)39.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
138,995
Median Income
$73,256
Median Home Value
$308,900
Median Age
41.5
Poverty Rate
9.0%
Labor force participation
61.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
39.9%
Schools
Total Schools
19
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.1%
Carpool
9.5%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
2.4%
Work from Home
10.1%
Other
1.2%
Based on 67,974 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 Metairie. 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 Metairie 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 Metairie sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Metairie 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, 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.