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Place dossier plate
SheetLA-SULPHUR-LA · Sulphur, LA 21,004 pop · income 32nd 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 Sulphur
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sulphur on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Ruston · lowest
32,765
Ruston · lowest
32,765 median HH income
19.8% of the leader · rank #1
Shiloh · near
58,036
Shiloh · near
58,036 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #2
Greenville · near
58,036
Greenville · near
58,036 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #3
Weissport · near
58,036
Weissport · near
58,036 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #4
Sulphur · this city
58,044
Sulphur · this city
58,044 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #5
McCoole · near
58,047
McCoole · near
58,047 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #6
Murphy · highest
165,109
Murphy · highest
165,109 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 Sulphur 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: 21,004.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Sulphur - the verdict
Sulphur ranks in the 32nd percentile for household income and the 13th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
32nd
percentile, household income
35th
percentile, home value
16th
percentile, median rent
13th
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: Sulphur, LA
Louisiana's Sulphur is a small city, with 21,004 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Sulphur households earn a median of $58,044 annually, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 12.9%. Typical homes in Sulphur are valued around $175,200, and the median resident age is 39.3 years. About 16.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 53.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 40 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 78% from five years earlier. Sulphur's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 3292.4 in FBI UCR data, above the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,007 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Louisiana's average monthly utility costs around $212 (state average). Commute times here average 15.8 minutes, with 86.5% driving alone and 3.6% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 62.4 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Sulphur'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 reported crime to housing and income to population change to work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sulphur, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, 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.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Sulphur?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3292.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 44% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Sulphur?
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 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,308 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -6.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 40 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Sulphur?
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 Hammond (20,790 residents, $41,222 income); Harvey (21,710 residents, $43,524 income); Bayou Cane (22,143 residents, $73,235 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Murphy, TX (21,001 residents); Bothell West, WA (21,014 residents); South Holland, IL (21,016 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Sulphur?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 86.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 15.8 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Drive alone
86.5%
Work from home
3.6%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 8,722 workers age 16+.
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. 16.4% 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.
Poverty estimate
12.9%
Bachelor's degree+
16.4%
Matched public schools
12
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Below median income · poverty 12.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
88.2 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Louisiana average
D
City profile score · Sulphur, LA
40/100
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.
Household income F
$58,044
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
12.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
376 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Sulphur profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 92/100 (A+) · 88.2 index
Household income: 32/100 (F) · $58,044
Poverty rate: 28/100 (F) · 12.9%
Bachelor's+ share: 24/100 (F) · 16.4%
Violent crime: 24/100 (F) · 376 /100k
Where Sulphur sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Sulphur'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 - Sulphur highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Sulphur, LA (this city): home $175,200, crime 3,292/100k
Murphy, TX : home $508,500, crime 518/100k
South Holland, IL : home $201,200, crime 2,452/100k
Anna, TX : home $312,700, crime 870/100k
Ruston, LA : home $226,700, crime 3,383/100k
Zachary, LA : home $258,000, crime 2,353/100k
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 Sulphur compare to other US cities?
Here's how Sulphur stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income32% higher than other cities
Home value35% pricier than other cities
Median rent16% pricier than other cities
Safety13% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Louisiana, Sulphur ranks #32 of 60 Louisiana cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Sulphur 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 Sulphur near the bottom of Louisiana's cities
Among the 477 Louisiana cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sulphur ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sulphur only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#160 of 426
62nd percentile in Louisiana
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 477
0th percentile in Louisiana
Median Home Value
#157 of 419
63rd percentile in Louisiana
Poverty Rate
#264 of 475
44th percentile in Louisiana
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#203 of 477
57th 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
32nd percentile nationally for median household income · 13th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Sulphur's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Sulphur'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 Sulphur's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$175,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 65% 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
Sulphur's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#6,790 of 15,516
More affordable than 56% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#933 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.0×, Sulphur sits in the moderate band:
national rank #6,790 of 15,516 and #933 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
$58,044Sulphur, LA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sulphur, 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 Sulphur, LA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
21,004
Median Income
$58,044
Median Home Value
$175,200
Median Age
39.3
Poverty Rate
12.9%
Labor force participation
53.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3292.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
375.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2916.6
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
Sulphur's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
21,800 residents
2021
20,646 residents
2022
20,353 residents
2023
20,461 residents
2024
20,555 residents
2025
20,492 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
40
housing units authorized
Single-Family
40
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
183
136
47
$19.7M
2020
110
110
0
$14.0M
2021
81
81
0
$10.3M
2022
82
82
0
$10.3M
2023
37
35
2
$4.7M
2024
40
40
0
$5.2M
Permit volume decreased 78% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.8 minutes
Drive Alone
86.5%
Carpool
7.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.2%
Work from Home
3.6%
Based on 8,722 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 Sulphur. 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 Sulphur 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 Sulphur sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sulphur 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.