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Place dossier plate
SheetLA-OPELOUSAS-LA · Opelousas, LA 15,662 pop · income 5th pct · 28 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 Opelousas
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Opelousas on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bear Creek · lowest
36,250
Bear Creek · lowest
36,250 median HH income
20.2% of the leader · rank #1
Flomaton · near
36,250
Flomaton · near
36,250 median HH income
20.2% of the leader · rank #2
Scottsville · near
36,259
Scottsville · near
36,259 median HH income
20.2% of the leader · rank #3
Opelousas · this city
36,260
Opelousas · this city
36,260 median HH income
20.2% of the leader · rank #4
Brookhaven · near
36,269
Brookhaven · near
36,269 median HH income
20.2% of the leader · rank #5
Springdale · highest
179,531
Springdale · highest
179,531 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Opelousas on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 15,662.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Opelousas - the verdict
Nationally, Opelousas sits in the 5th percentile for household income and the 2nd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
5th
percentile, household income
14th
percentile, home value
16th
percentile, median rent
2nd
percentile, safety
📝 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: Opelousas, LA
15,662 people live in Opelousas, Louisiana - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Opelousas households earn a median of $36,260 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 31.5%. Typical homes in Opelousas are valued around $113,000, and the median resident age is 34.3 years. About 10.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 43.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 3 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 73% from five years earlier. Opelousas's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 6388.0 crimes per 100,000 residents, above the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Louisiana run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Louisiana at 88.2 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,007 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Louisiana's average monthly utility costs around $212 (state average). 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 Opelousas'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 work and mobility to within-city variation to schools and households to population change to comparison shortlist to housing and income to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Opelousas, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Opelousas?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
What can 28 Census tracts reveal inside Opelousas?
PlainCities matches 28 Census tracts to this city.
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.
What does the education layer cover for Opelousas?
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.
The NCES join finds 12 public schools within the city match. 10.9% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Opelousas?
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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Louisiana, the closest population matches are Thibodaux (15,792 residents, $53,775 income); Youngsville (16,664 residents, $113,164 income); Estelle (16,761 residents, $73,519 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hillcrest Heights, MD (15,670 residents); Springdale, NJ (15,672 residents); Bellmore, NY (15,652 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.
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.
Population change
Is Opelousas growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -669 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
2020 estimate
15,767
2025 estimate
15,098
Period change
-4.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
How far does income reach against housing in Opelousas?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 31.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.1×
Home value
$113,000
Household income
$36,260
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Opelousas?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 6388.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 180% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Total reported rate
6388.0
Violent rate
1369.3
Property rate
5018.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 31.5% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.2 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Louisiana average
F
City profile score · Opelousas, LA
20/100
5 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 F
10.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$36,260
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
31.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
1,369 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Opelousas profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 92/100 (A+) · 88.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 9/100 (F) · 10.9%
Household income: 2/100 (F) · $36,260
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 31.5%
Violent crime: 0/100 (F) · 1,369 /100k
Where Opelousas sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Opelousas's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Opelousas highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Opelousas, LA (this city): home $113,000, crime 6,388/100k
Palmview, TX : home $109,400, crime 1,939/100k
Prospect Heights, IL : home $347,500, crime 747/100k
Scottsboro, AL : home $175,700, crime 1,974/100k
Thibodaux, LA : home $237,400, crime 3,232/100k
Gretna, LA : home $242,600, crime 4,229/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Opelousas compare to other US cities?
Where Opelousas sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income5% higher than other cities
Home value14% pricier than other cities
Median rent16% pricier than other cities
Safety2% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Louisiana and the picture shifts: Opelousas ranks #56 of 60 Louisiana cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Opelousas 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 Opelousas near the bottom of Louisiana's cities
Among the 477 Louisiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Opelousas ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Opelousas only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#316 of 426
26th percentile in Louisiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 477
0th percentile in Louisiana
Median Home Value
#268 of 419
36th percentile in Louisiana
Poverty Rate
#78 of 475
83rd percentile in Louisiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#315 of 477
34th 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
5th percentile nationally for median household income · 2nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Opelousas's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Opelousas's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Opelousas's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$113,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 86% 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
Opelousas's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,261 of 15,516
More affordable than 53% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,067 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.1×, Opelousas sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,261 of 15,516 and #1,067 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
$36,260Opelousas, LA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Opelousas, 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 Opelousas, LA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)10.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)31.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)43.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
15,662
Median Income
$36,260
Median Home Value
$113,000
Median Age
34.3
Poverty Rate
31.5%
Labor force participation
43.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
10.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
6388.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
1369.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
5018.7
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Opelousas's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
15,767 residents
2021
15,672 residents
2022
15,470 residents
2023
15,373 residents
2024
15,226 residents
2025
15,098 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
3
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
11
11
0
$2.1M
2020
12
12
0
$2.3M
2021
3
3
0
$1.3M
2022
20
6
14
$4.5M
2023
3
3
0
$0.6M
2024
3
3
0
$0.8M
Permit volume decreased 73% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
82.6%
Carpool
8.9%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
5.2%
Other
0.8%
Based on 5,035 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 Opelousas. 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 Opelousas 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 Opelousas sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Opelousas 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, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, 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.