Louisiana towns and cities are so safe that they still make people drive 55 MPH on the highways.
All jokes aside, we think they must be doing something right in Louisiana in terms of safety.
There are super safe places in The Bayou State, but you'll have to know how to navigate the state's property and violent crime heat map to find them. There are some dangerous places in Louisiana that you might want to avoid.
And that's where HomeSnacks comes in. We looked at the FBI data on crime for places in Louisiana with more than 5,000 residents and created a list of the safest places to live in The Pelican State for 2026.
Our research led us to multiple conclusions. One, there are super safe places throughout Louisiana from Shreveport in the state's northwest region to some neighborhoods in New Orleans in the state's bayou region. And two, you should look at our list of Louisiana's safest places below before deciding where to live.
Want to know more about Louisiana's safest places? Find a sunny spot on the Gulf of Mexico and read on.
105 violent / 721 property per 100k
Located in
Jefferson Parish, Louisiana
Harahan, located along the Mississippi River just East of New Orleans, is our safest city in Louisiana. This little river city is super family friendly and virtually crime free. It's one of the safest places to call home on our list.
We think that their town motto should be: 'Feels Like Home'. They are super welcoming; and in true Louisiana fashion, they would be happy to get anyone out of a jam.
Harahan's overall HomeSnacks snackability score was off the hook: a straight up 9/10! Not surprising, considering their safety rating is an 8/10 and percentage of educated residents is 8/10. Busy people = less naughty people. If that doesn't say safe, we don't know what does.
Keep making' The Bayou State proud, Harahan. We all could learn a lot from this Jefferson Parish city.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
72 violent / 883 property per 100k
Located in
Acadia Parish, Louisiana
Welcome to the "Frog Capital of the World." That's the title given to Rayne, Louisiana. Each year, the community hosts the Rayne Frog Festival, the perfect place to gorge on frog legs and to take in the spectacle of a frog derby.
Rayne has other things going for it as well. For one thing, it's only 25 minutes from the nearby city of Lafayette. But most importantly, it stands as one of the safest communities in the state.
With a population of 6,910, Rayne experienced only 61 over the course of a year. The news is even better when it comes to violence. The number of violent crimes came in at a scant 5. As a result, Rayne can add the title of "Number 2 Safest City in Louisiana" to its designation as the Frog Capital.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
141 violent / 693 property per 100k
Welcome to Addis, our number one safest city in Louisiana. It's so safe in this little city along the Mississippi River, that the alligators are always showing their faces at the same time every evening reminding the residents to get home before dark. Thanks gators!
Located along Louisiana Highway One, Addis offers a safe environment with small town charm that packs a big punch. Not literally, of course. No fighting happens in Baton Rouge Parish; that wouldn't be safe. Not to mention they have the Cajun Navy dialed in if ya know what we mean. #winkwink
With a little over 5,000 residents, the superb quality of life in this little city just outside of Baton Rouge, is the reason that it is our number one safest city in Louisiana for 2026. The residents claim that Addis is where "Your problems will be smaller, You burdens will be few, For Friends are made for helping, And that's just what they do." We think this is definitely why they scored a whopping 8/10 on our snackablity scale with an 8.5/10 safety score. They are always looking out for each other.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
130 violent / 1,233 property per 100k
Located in
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
Y'all flip on your swamp boat hazards, slap on a life jacket, and read on to find out why Mandeville is our fourth safest city in Louisiana.
It might not be Barney Fife's Mayberry, or maybe it is, but this safe, little Lake Pontchartrain city with a vibrant Cajun community, quiet neighborhoods, and hardworking residents is just as notable and just as safe. Probably why it's one of the most sought after cities outside of New Orleans. It doesn't end there folks. This little Louisiana gem, scored a strong 8.5/10 on our snackability scale, they also scored an 8.5 for job opportunities and an 8.5 for number of educated residents. I think it's safe to say they're the poster city for the rest of the state. And word on the street is that young professionals are starting to take notice and move Mandeville's direction. So don't wait, because the word is out.
And if you want to read more about how great Mandeville is, check out our article: The Best Cities in Louisiana'. Not surprising, this Tammany Parish city also made our top ten. Good work 'Good Neighbor Community'!
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
172 violent / 1,014 property per 100k
Located in
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
Covington in St. Tammany Parish, famed for its historical roots as an early 19th-century settlement and river commerce hub, is ranked fifth in safety across the state for 2026. Its crime rates, with a violent crime rate of 171/100k people and an even lower property crime rate of 1,013/100k people, reflect the peaceful nature of this suburban community.
Covington stands at fifth safest for violent crime and sixth safest for property crime in the state.
Data | Cost of living | Movers
270 violent / 541 property per 100k
Located in
St. Mary Parish, Louisiana
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
294 violent / 1,450 property per 100k
In De Ridder they love their wide open spaces, their parks, their safe neighborhoods, their Cajun cuisine, and their trucks with gun racks. We all know nothing says safe like showing' up to the annual 'Beauregard Watermelon Festival' with your gal by your side and a newly mounted rack, right?
This little piece of heaven in the 337 has every right to be our seventh safest city in Louisiana for 2026. They scored off the charts on our snackability scale with an emphasis on education; and of course, safety.
De Ridder is so safe, that the only crime here is a bad haircut or dipping your crawfish in ranch. Its small city charm delivers big opportunities to all that are searching for a safe place to call home. They claim to be more then prepared to show you the good 'ol hometown pride that makes the south famous and safe. Yes, 'It's that Friendly'.
195 violent / 2,153 property per 100k
Located in
St. Martin Parish, Louisiana
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
461 violent / 337 property per 100k
Located in
Madison Parish, Louisiana
Of course Tallulah is safe. It's the small city where the big idea for Delta Air Lines originated. You can't build planes without safety in mind, right? You also can't be dumb. Probably why they also have a large number of educated residents, and probably why they are our ninth safest city in Louisiana. Safe and smart?! Good work Tallulah!
This is the quintessential Madison Parish city located just East of the Mississippi River. Not surprising, they received an 8.5/10 safety score and an 8.5/10 amenities score. The neighborhoods are safe and there's a ton of stuff to do.
Whether it's strolling their Cajun inspired downtown or buying crawfish at the local seafood shop, nothing says safe like a community that creates opportunities to get to know anything and everything about each other.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
257 violent / 2,285 property per 100k
Located in
St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Louisiana's statewide median. Lower is safer.
Louisiana statewide median: 450
Louisiana statewide median: 2,833
On the map
Where the safety is in Louisiana
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we calculated the safest cities in Louisiana for 2026
While there are surveys and public polls on what cities in Louisiana are the safest, we wanted to rely on something other than speculation and opinion. Instead, we looked at the hard numbers from the FBI's most recent crime report in Louisiana.
Specifically, we used Saturday Night Science to analyze the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, which summarizes the number of property and violent crimes in each city annually. We used two criteria:
- Violent crimes per capita (murders, assaults, rapes, armed robberies)
- Property crimes per capita (thefts, burglaries, motor vehicle thefts)
For example, there were 71 crimes committed in Harahan, with a reported population of 8,596. That means the number of crimes per capita is 0.0083, which translates into a 1 in 121 chance of being the victim of a crime.
We only looked at Louisiana cities that have populations of more than 5,000. This filter left us with 39 of the biggest cities in Louisiana to rank.
We ranked each city for each criterion from 1 to 39 where 1 in any particular category is the safest.
Next, we averaged each place's two criteria to create a Safety Index. We crowned the place with the lowest overall Safety Score, "The Safest Place In Louisiana," with any ties going to the bigger city.
The safest city in Louisiana, based on our criteria, is Harahan. The most dangerous city in Louisiana? Alexandria, where residents had a 1 in 10 chance of being the victim of a crime.
This article has been update for 2026. This report marks our eleventh time ranking the safest places to live in Louisiana. All the data comes from the FBI's Crime In The USA 2024 report.
Summary
Summary: The Safest Cities In The Pelican State
Looking at the data, you can tell that Harahan is as safe as they come in Louisiana, according to science and data.
But as most Louisiana residents would agree, almost every place here has its safe and not safe parts. So just make sure you're informed ahead of time.
The safest places in Louisiana are .
For more reading, check out:
The full plate
Where Are The Safest Cities In Louisiana For 2026?
Click any column to sort. All 39 ranked Louisiana cities.
| Rank | City | Population | Violent / 100k | Property / 100k | Murders / 100k | Murders |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harahan, LA | 8,596 | 104 | 721 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Rayne, LA | 6,910 | 72 | 882 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Addis, LA | 7,797 | 141 | 692 | 12 | 1 |
| 4 | Mandeville, LA | 13,053 | 130 | 1,233 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Covington, LA | 11,641 | 171 | 1,013 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Patterson, LA | 5,550 | 270 | 540 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | De Ridder, LA | 9,517 | 294 | 1,450 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Broussard, LA | 14,906 | 194 | 2,153 | 6 | 1 |
| 9 | Tallulah, LA | 5,638 | 461 | 336 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Slidell, LA | 28,449 | 256 | 2,284 | 3 | 1 |
| 11 | Zachary, LA | 20,142 | 332 | 2,020 | 4 | 1 |
| 12 | Baker, LA | 11,933 | 402 | 1,743 | 8 | 1 |
| 13 | Carencro, LA | 13,985 | 414 | 2,023 | 7 | 1 |
| 14 | Thibodaux, LA | 15,562 | 257 | 2,975 | 6 | 1 |
| 15 | Westwego, LA | 8,021 | 423 | 2,094 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | Ponchatoula, LA | 7,784 | 449 | 1,978 | 38 | 3 |
| 17 | Kenner, LA | 62,377 | 344 | 2,832 | 9 | 6 |
| 18 | Scott, LA | 8,917 | 661 | 1,637 | 11 | 1 |
| 19 | Sulphur, LA | 19,955 | 375 | 2,916 | 10 | 2 |
| 20 | Lake Charles, LA | 77,982 | 612 | 2,469 | 16 | 13 |
| 21 | Ruston, LA | 22,259 | 426 | 2,956 | 13 | 3 |
| 22 | Morgan City, LA | 10,701 | 551 | 2,831 | 9 | 1 |
| 23 | Gonzales, LA | 14,259 | 364 | 3,934 | 14 | 2 |
| 24 | Minden, LA | 11,050 | 796 | 2,533 | 27 | 3 |
| 25 | Gretna, LA | 16,788 | 428 | 3,800 | 11 | 2 |
| 26 | Walker, LA | 6,398 | 703 | 3,188 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | New Iberia, LA | 26,653 | 1,009 | 3,125 | 33 | 9 |
| 28 | Bossier City, LA | 62,750 | 913 | 3,679 | 11 | 7 |
| 29 | Jennings, LA | 9,230 | 1,007 | 3,347 | 10 | 1 |
| 30 | Plaquemine, LA | 5,925 | 1,215 | 3,291 | 33 | 2 |
| 31 | Natchitoches, LA | 16,945 | 891 | 4,384 | 29 | 5 |
| 32 | Lafayette, LA | 121,471 | 1,066 | 4,347 | 14 | 18 |
| 33 | Bogalusa, LA | 10,252 | 1,131 | 4,213 | 9 | 1 |
| 34 | Shreveport, LA | 175,092 | 1,228 | 3,990 | 26 | 47 |
| 35 | West Monroe, LA | 12,368 | 1,156 | 5,886 | 8 | 1 |
| 36 | Opelousas, LA | 15,263 | 1,369 | 5,018 | 39 | 6 |
| 37 | Bastrop, LA | 8,792 | 1,421 | 4,833 | 22 | 2 |
| 38 | Monroe, LA | 46,290 | 1,892 | 5,733 | 15 | 7 |
| 39 | Alexandria, LA | 42,933 | 2,713 | 6,596 | 37 | 16 |
Breaking Down Crime In The Safest And Most Dangerous Cities In Louisiana
Keep exploring