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Place dossier plate
SheetLA-PATTERSON-LA · Patterson, LA 5,801 pop · income 17th pct
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 Patterson
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Patterson on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Columbia · lowest
34,328
Columbia · lowest
34,328 median HH income
33.9% of the leader · rank #1
Interlachen · near
48,000
Interlachen · near
48,000 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #2
Waverly · near
48,000
Waverly · near
48,000 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #3
Morristown · near
48,000
Morristown · near
48,000 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #4
Patterson · this city
48,002
Patterson · this city
48,002 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #5
Chandler · near
48,002
Chandler · near
48,002 median HH income
47.5% of the leader · rank #6
Inniswold · highest
101,149
Inniswold · highest
101,149 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Patterson 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: 5,801.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Patterson - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Patterson lands in the 17th percentile for household income and the 72nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
17th
percentile, household income
23rd
percentile, home value
16th
percentile, median rent
72nd
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: Patterson, LA
Louisiana's Patterson is a small town, with 5,801 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Patterson households earn a median of $48,002 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 25.7%. Typical homes in Patterson are valued around $137,200, and the median resident age is 32.1 years. Educational attainment runs 7.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 51.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 2 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Stable), up 0% from five years earlier. Patterson reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 810.8 crimes per 100,000 residents, below 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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,007 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Louisiana's average monthly utility costs around $212 (state average). 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 Patterson'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income to reported crime to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Patterson, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Patterson?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 7.3% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Patterson?
Within Louisiana, the closest population matches are Larose (5,937 residents, $71,250 income); Leesville (5,610 residents, $38,292 income); Elmwood (6,022 residents, $83,268 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Preston, ID (5,800 residents); Weiser, ID (5,803 residents); Medina, NY (5,799 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What does the journey to work look like in Patterson?
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 82.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
How far does income reach against housing in Patterson?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 25.7%, 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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Patterson?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 810.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 64% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
540.5
Violent rate
270.3
Total reported rate
810.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Patterson growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 -339 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -5.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-5.7%
2025 estimate
5,565
2020 estimate
5,904
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Low income · poverty 25.7% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.2 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Louisiana average
F
City profile score · Patterson, LA
31/100
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.
Violent crime F
270 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$48,002
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
25.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
7.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Patterson profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 92/100 (A+) · 88.2 index
Violent crime: 37/100 (F) · 270 /100k
Household income: 18/100 (F) · $48,002
Poverty rate: 5/100 (F) · 25.7%
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 7.3%
Where Patterson sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Patterson'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 - Patterson highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Patterson, LA (this city): home $137,200, crime 811/100k
Preston, ID : home $280,500, crime 446/100k
Weiser, ID : home $196,200, crime 178/100k
Ephraim, UT : home $405,600, crime 573/100k
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 Patterson compare to other US cities?
Patterson measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income17% higher than other cities
Home value23% pricier than other cities
Median rent16% pricier than other cities
Safety72% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Louisiana alone, Patterson ranks #7 of 60 Louisiana cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Patterson 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 Patterson near the bottom of Louisiana's cities
Among the 477 Louisiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Patterson ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Patterson only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#239 of 426
44th percentile in Louisiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 477
0th percentile in Louisiana
Median Home Value
#218 of 419
48th percentile in Louisiana
Poverty Rate
#123 of 475
74th percentile in Louisiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#380 of 477
19th 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
17th percentile nationally for median household income · 72nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Patterson's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Patterson'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 Patterson's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$137,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 77% 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
Patterson's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,909 of 15,516
More affordable than 62% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,095 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, Patterson sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,909 of 15,516 and #5,095 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$48,002Patterson, LA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Patterson, 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 Patterson, LA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)7.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)25.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)51.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,801
Median Income
$48,002
Median Home Value
$137,200
Median Age
32.1
Poverty Rate
25.7%
Labor force participation
51.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
7.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
810.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
270.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
540.5
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Patterson's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,904 residents
2021
5,794 residents
2022
5,740 residents
2023
5,665 residents
2024
5,627 residents
2025
5,565 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
2
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.3M
2020
2
2
0
$0.3M
2021
2
2
0
$0.3M
2022
3
3
0
$0.8M
2023
1
1
0
$0.3M
2024
2
2
0
$0.6M
Permit volume increased 0% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
82.6%
Carpool
8.5%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
6.3%
Other
1.9%
Based on 2,024 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 Patterson. 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 Patterson 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 Patterson sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Patterson 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.