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Place dossier plate
SheetLA-PONCHATOULA-LA · Ponchatoula, LA 7,839 pop · income 16th 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 Ponchatoula
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ponchatoula on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Big Rapids · lowest
40,197
Big Rapids · lowest
40,197 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #1
Hillsdale · near
47,817
Hillsdale · near
47,817 median HH income
27.5% of the leader · rank #2
Cumberland · near
47,819
Cumberland · near
47,819 median HH income
27.5% of the leader · rank #3
Ponchatoula · this city
47,821
Ponchatoula · this city
47,821 median HH income
27.5% of the leader · rank #4
Brownwood · near
47,821
Brownwood · near
47,821 median HH income
27.5% of the leader · rank #5
Icard · near
47,825
Icard · near
47,825 median HH income
27.5% of the leader · rank #6
Westlake · highest
174,069
Westlake · highest
174,069 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 Ponchatoula 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: 7,839.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Ponchatoula - the verdict
Ponchatoula ranks in the 16th percentile for household income and the 24th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
16th
percentile, household income
41st
percentile, home value
16th
percentile, median rent
24th
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: Ponchatoula, LA
Ponchatoula is a small town in Louisiana, home to 7,839 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $47,821 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 16.8%. Ponchatoula's housing stock carries a median value of $194,300, and the median resident age is 43.9 years. About 22.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 44.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 20 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 77% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2428.1 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. 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). Workers in Ponchatoula report an average commute of 28.7 minutes, with 82.4% driving alone and 10.3% working from home. 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 Ponchatoula'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 population change to reported crime to schools and households to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ponchatoula, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
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.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Ponchatoula?
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 82.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 28.7 minutes.
Is Ponchatoula 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 -80 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 20 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Ponchatoula?
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 2428.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 6% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ponchatoula?
Within Louisiana, the closest population matches are Old Jefferson (7,790 residents, $85,466 income); Eden Isle (7,753 residents, $76,427 income); Fort Polk South (8,056 residents, $62,790 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Round Lake Park, IL (7,833 residents); Yreka, CA (7,832 residents); Lihue, HI (7,847 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.
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 Ponchatoula?
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 22.4% 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
7
Bachelor's degree+
22.4%
Poverty estimate
16.8%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
How far does income reach against housing in Ponchatoula?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 16.8%, 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.
Household income
$47,821
Home value
$194,300
Value / income
4.1×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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
22.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
16.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
450 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$47,821
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Ponchatoula profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 92/100 (A+) · 88.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 41/100 (D) · 22.4%
Poverty rate: 19/100 (F) · 16.8%
Violent crime: 19/100 (F) · 450 /100k
Household income: 17/100 (F) · $47,821
Where Ponchatoula sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Ponchatoula'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 - Ponchatoula highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Ponchatoula, LA (this city): home $194,300, crime 2,428/100k
Round Lake Park, IL : home $157,900, crime 181/100k
Yreka, CA : home $245,100, crime 3,149/100k
Big Rapids, MI : home $134,200, crime 1,819/100k
Princeton, IL : home $131,300, crime 1,684/100k
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 Ponchatoula compare to other US cities?
Where Ponchatoula sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income16% higher than other cities
Home value41% pricier than other cities
Median rent16% pricier than other cities
Safety24% 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, Ponchatoula ranks #24 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 Ponchatoula 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 Ponchatoula near the bottom of Louisiana's cities
Among the 477 Louisiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ponchatoula ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ponchatoula only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#240 of 426
44th percentile in Louisiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 477
0th percentile in Louisiana
Median Home Value
#114 of 419
73rd percentile in Louisiana
Poverty Rate
#208 of 475
56th percentile in Louisiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#119 of 477
75th 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
16th percentile nationally for median household income · 24th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Ponchatoula's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Ponchatoula'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 Ponchatoula's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$194,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 59% 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
Ponchatoula's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,885 of 15,516
More affordable than 30% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,479 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.1×, Ponchatoula sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,885 of 15,516 and #8,479 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$47,821Ponchatoula, LA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ponchatoula, 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 Ponchatoula, LA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)44.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
7,839
Median Income
$47,821
Median Home Value
$194,300
Median Age
43.9
Poverty Rate
16.8%
Labor force participation
44.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2428.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
449.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1978.4
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
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Ponchatoula's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
7,835 residents
2021
7,910 residents
2022
7,869 residents
2023
7,792 residents
2024
7,770 residents
2025
7,755 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
20
housing units authorized
Single-Family
20
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
88
84
4
$15.4M
2020
80
80
0
$11.8M
2021
38
32
6
$5.9M
2022
13
11
2
$3.1M
2023
9
7
2
$1.9M
2024
20
20
0
$5.1M
Permit volume decreased 77% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
28.7 minutes
Drive Alone
82.4%
Carpool
2.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
10.3%
Other
4.9%
Based on 2,802 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 Ponchatoula. 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 Ponchatoula 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 Ponchatoula sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ponchatoula 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.