These Are The 10 Best Cities For Hippies In Louisiana

You might think that the whole hippie movement has faded away, but the truth is, there are plenty of hippies out there in Louisiana.

While they aren’t necessarily in your face all the time with war protests and the next Woodstock isn’t being planned any time soon, we thought it would be fun to look at which cities in the Pelican State where the most hippies would live.

And, after crunching the data, you know what? It was pretty spot on, we have to say.

How do you decide where the most hippies live? By the number of yoga studios, organic markets, and most importantly, where the liberals live in droves.

Using that criteria, it’s not hard to scrape the internet, run some scientific data on where hippies might live in Louisiana, and then put out a list.

So, put on your tie dye shirt and your sandals as you go through this list with us.

After analyzing all cities with a decent amount of people in them, we came up with this list of the 10 best cities for hippies in Louisiana:

1. Westwego (Photos)
2. Port Allen (Photos)
3. Gretna (Photos)
4. Harahan (Photos)
5. Ponchatoula (Photos)
6. Grambling (Photos)
7. Covington (Photos)
8. Scott (Photos)
9. Mandeville (Photos)
10. Richwood

Read on below to see where your town ranked, young flower child.

And if you already knew these places were hippie heavens, check out the best places to live in Louisiana or the safest places to live in Louisiana.

How do you determine the most beatnik city in Louisiana?

In order to rank the best cities for hippies in Louisiana, we had to determine what criteria defines a hippie.

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the Google Places API, the Census’s 2010-2014 American Community Survey, and Voter Registration data, this is the criteria we used:

• Number of yoga studios per capita
• Number of organic markets per capita
• Number of pet adoption centers per capita
• Number of vegan restaurants per capita
• Number of thrift stores per capita
• Each city’s liberal voting population

Note: For the sake of getting reliable numbers, we counted places within a ~4.5 mile radius of a city’s center. The average city in America is about 18 square miles.

All of these results are listed in a per capita basis, meaning number of stores per person in a city. Additionally, we limited the analysis to non-CDPs that have over 5,000 people.

We ranked each place with scores from 1 to 67 in each category, where 1 was the most hippie.

Next, we averaged the rankings for each place to create a hippie index.

And finally, we crowned the city with the highest hippie index the ‘Best City for Hippies In Louisiana.’ We’re lookin’ at you, Westwego.

Read on below to learn more about what it’s like to live in hippie central. Or skip to the end to see the list of all the places in the state from hippiest to most square.

1. Westwego

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 3.28
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 1.05
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 1.41
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 2.34
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 2.93
Westwego is a city in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and a suburb of New Orleans. The population was 8,534 at the 2010 census. It lies along the west bank of the Mississippi River.

2. Port Allen

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 2.33
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.58
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.39
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.78
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 2.52

3. Gretna

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 1.8
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.79
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.62
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 1.35
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 1.91
Gretna is the second-largest city and parish seat of Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States. Gretna is on the west bank of the Mississippi River, just east and across the river from uptown New Orleans. It is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 17,736 at the 2010 census.

4. Harahan

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.54
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.11
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.43
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.75
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 1.39
Harahan is a city in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and a suburb of New Orleans. The population was 9,277 at the 2010 census.

5. Ponchatoula

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.44
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.3
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.44
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.59
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 1.63
Ponchatoula is a small city in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 6,559 at the 2010 census. Ponchatoula is known as the ‘Strawberry Capital of the World’. It is part of the Hammond Micropolitan Statistical Area.

6. Grambling

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.2
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.2
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.2
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.6
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.8

7. Covington

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.76
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.33
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.66
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.33
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.87
Covington is a city in, and the parish seat of, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 8,765 at the 2010 census. It is located at a fork of the Bogue Falaya and the Tchefuncte River.

8. Scott

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.34
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.11
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.34
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.46
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 1.03
Scott is the fourth largest municipality in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population rose to over 8,000 according to the 2010 census results. Scott is a suburb of Lafayette and is part of the Lafayette Metropolitan Statistical Area.

9. Mandeville

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.99
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.25
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.25
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.25
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 0.83
Mandeville is a small city in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, United States. The population was 11,560 at the 2010 census. Mandeville is located on the North Shore of Lake Pontchartrain, south of Interstate 12. It is across the lake from the city of New Orleans and its southshore suburbs. It is part of the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner metropolitan area.

10. Richwood

Yoga Studios Per 1,000 People: 0.34
Organic Markets Per 1,000 People: 0.0
Pet Adoption Centers Per 1,000 People: 0.34
Vegan Restaurants Per 1,000 People: 0.34
Thrift Stores Per 1,000 People: 1.2

There You Have It — The Hippies Of Louisiana

If you’re measuring the locations in Louisiana where there are lots of liberals, and there are many options for vegan food, yoga and thrift stores, this is an accurate list.

If you’re curious, here are the most square places in Louisiana:

1. Crowley
2. Bogalusa
3. Abbeville

For more Louisiana reading , check out:

• These Are The 10 Most Ghetto Cities In Louisiana
• These Are The 10 Most Boring Places In Louisiana
• These Are The 10 Safest Places In Louisiana

Detailed List Of The Hippiest Cities In Louisiana