Like all states, Louisiana has certain places that are going on hard times. These Louisiana places have an above-average percentage of people living in poverty, out of work, or not making as much as they should be.
Even as the economy continues to improve, it’s worthwhile to look at the places in each state struggling to make ends meet. So we set our sites on locating the poorest places in Louisiana.
To do so, we used Saturday Night Science to analyze the newest Census data from the American Community Survey for the 58 cities in Louisiana with more than 5,000 people.
$23,618 median income · 44.8% poverty · #1 lowest income in Louisiana
Located in
Ascension Parish, Louisiana
Donaldsonville, unfortunately, ranks as the poorest place in Louisiana thanks to combination of low pay and and a lack of jobs.
The city of 6,831 people averages the lowest median household income in Louisiana and the 2nd highest poverty rate. At the very least, the cost of living ranks in the bottom 15% of place in the state, so things like housing are relatively affordable.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$28,642 median income · 47.7% poverty · #3 lowest income in Louisiana
Located in
Acadia Parish, Louisiana
The second poorest city in Louisiana is Crowley.
The city ranks as having the highest incidence of poverty and 3rd lowest median household income. However, the unemployment rate ‘only’ ranks as the 6th highest in the Pelican State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$32,605 median income · 40.1% poverty · #6 lowest income in Louisiana
Located in
Morehouse Parish, Louisiana
Placing as the third poorest city, Bastrop’s median income ranks as the 6th lowest.
And that’s a sign that there’s a relatively substantial jump in the quality of the economy from second to third place on our list. The poverty rate is 40.1% and ranks near the bottom of places in the state.
But what makes up for the relatively low incomes of the city is its low cost of living. The income you do make here goes further than in most parts of the Pelican State.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$30,749 median income · 39.4% poverty · #4 lowest income in Louisiana
Located in
Washington Parish, Louisiana
Bogalusa ranks as the fourth poorest place in Louisiana.
The town ranks as having the 4th lowest median household income and the 6th highest incidence of poverty in the state.
That being said, there’s still a ton of cultural diversity in the city as it hosts many events throughout the year.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$31,120 median income · 39.8% poverty · #5 lowest income in Louisiana
Located in
Lincoln Parish, Louisiana
The fifth poorest city in Louisiana is Ruston.
The city ranks as having the 5th lowest median income in the state. However, an extremely low cost of living prevents a good number of folks from living in poverty as the poverty rate only ranks as the 5th highest in Louisiana.
Still not the best news for Ruston.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$33,419 median income · 41.7% poverty · #9 lowest income in Louisiana
Located in
Madison Parish, Louisiana
Tallulah ranks as the sixth poorest place in the Pelican State.
It ranks as having the 3rd highest incidence of poverty and the 25th highest unemployment rate.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$32,964 median income · 37.4% poverty · #7 lowest income in Louisiana
Located in
St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
Opelousas places as the seventh poorest city in Louisiana.
The city of over 15,495 ranks as having the 7th highest incidence of poverty in the state. However, it has a very low cost of living which helps to pay the bills each month.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$28,361 median income · 31.2% poverty · #2 lowest income in Louisiana
Located in
Evangeline Parish, Louisiana
Ville Platte ranks as the eighth poorest city in Louisiana.
The big issue for the town is the unemployment rate which ranks as one of the highest in the state.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$33,015 median income · 32.4% poverty · #8 lowest income in Louisiana
Located in
Vermilion Parish, Louisiana
Abbeville couldn’t stay out of the top ten poorest places in Louisiana; it ranks number 9.
While the median income is the 8th lowest, there are a substantial number of people that live below the poverty line. Overall, Abbeville ranks as having the 13th most people living in poverty of all the places we analyzed in Louisiana.
Data | Crime | Cost of living | Movers
$35,436 median income · 33.2% poverty · #11 lowest income in Louisiana
Located in
St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
And rounding out the top ten poorest cities in Louisiana is Eunice.
The city of 9,239 people ranks in the bottom 20% for both median income and poverty rate in the Pelican State.
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.
Louisiana statewide median: $60,756
Louisiana statewide median: 18.9%
Louisiana statewide median: 6.3%
On the map
Where poverty hits hardest in Louisiana
Saturday Night Science
How we determined the poorest places in Louisiana for 2026
The first thing that comes to most people’s minds when they think about determining the poorest places is to simply the poverty rate. That is, the number of people living below a federally established level of income for a household of a certain size.
However, we don’t think that one statistic wholly encompasses what it means to be one of the “poorest places”. So we used Saturday Night Science to look at this set of criteria from the newly released 2020-2024 American Community Survey:
- Poverty Level
- Median Household Income
After we collected the data for all 58 places with more than 5,000 people in Louisiana, we ranked each place from 1 to 58 for each of the criteria, with 1 being the poorest.
We then averaged all the rankings for a place into a “Poor Score” with the place having the lowest overall Poor Score, Donaldsonville, crowned the “Poorest Place In Louisiana For 2026”. The median Louisiana home is 43 years old — old enough that it pays to compare home warranty plans before something expensive breaks.
The full plate
Detailed list of the poorest places to live in Louisiana
Click any column to sort. Search by city name.
| Rank | City | Poor Score | Population | Median income | Poverty | Unemployment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Donaldsonville | 1.50 | 6,831 | $23,618 | 44.8% | 13.4% |
| 2 | Crowley | 2.00 | 11,422 | $28,642 | 47.7% | 14.3% |
| 3 | Bastrop | 5.00 | 9,232 | $32,605 | 40.1% | 15.1% |
| 4 | Bogalusa | 5.00 | 10,468 | $30,749 | 39.4% | 15.7% |
| 5 | Ruston | 5.00 | 22,284 | $31,120 | 39.8% | 3.4% |
| 6 | Tallulah | 6.00 | 5,969 | $33,419 | 41.7% | 7.1% |
| 7 | Opelousas | 7.00 | 15,495 | $32,964 | 37.4% | 11.9% |
| 8 | Ville Platte | 8.00 | 6,253 | $28,361 | 31.2% | 22.8% |
| 9 | Abbeville | 10.50 | 11,003 | $33,015 | 32.4% | 5.5% |
| 10 | Eunice | 11.00 | 9,239 | $35,436 | 33.2% | 8.6% |
| 11 | Natchitoches | 11.00 | 17,577 | $37,133 | 35.9% | 7.1% |
| 12 | Monroe | 12.00 | 47,004 | $40,505 | 35.9% | 10.2% |
| 13 | Leesville | 12.00 | 5,495 | $37,500 | 33.7% | 9.8% |
| 14 | Oakdale | 15.00 | 6,546 | $42,540 | 32.8% | 14.4% |
| 15 | Minden | 16.00 | 11,455 | $34,294 | 26.7% | 2.7% |
| 16 | Franklin | 16.50 | 6,461 | $39,518 | 27.3% | 2.8% |
| 17 | Breaux Bridge | 19.00 | 7,501 | $47,806 | 30.4% | 3.5% |
| 18 | Gretna | 19.50 | 17,389 | $43,110 | 26.9% | 6.3% |
| 19 | Hammond | 20.50 | 21,539 | $48,166 | 28.9% | 5.9% |
| 20 | Alexandria | 20.50 | 44,060 | $47,113 | 27.0% | 5.2% |
| 21 | New Iberia | 21.00 | 27,571 | $47,087 | 26.7% | 10.7% |
| 22 | Rayne | 21.00 | 7,105 | $42,151 | 25.5% | 7.2% |
| 23 | St. Martinville | 21.50 | 5,297 | $36,130 | 22.3% | 9.0% |
| 24 | Baker | 24.50 | 12,253 | $54,750 | 29.8% | 16.6% |
| 25 | West Monroe | 25.00 | 12,729 | $49,386 | 26.3% | 9.6% |
| 26 | Shreveport | 26.50 | 180,982 | $48,699 | 23.5% | 9.0% |
| 27 | Baton Rouge | 27.00 | 222,771 | $49,994 | 25.7% | 9.2% |
| 28 | Westwego | 27.00 | 8,335 | $46,261 | 20.2% | 2.7% |
| 29 | Patterson | 29.00 | 5,744 | $49,886 | 22.9% | 9.5% |
| 30 | Pineville | 30.00 | 14,160 | $49,774 | 21.1% | 3.3% |
| 31 | Jennings | 30.50 | 9,553 | $48,558 | 19.1% | 4.0% |
| 32 | New Orleans | 33.50 | 371,853 | $56,631 | 22.6% | 7.5% |
| 33 | Bossier City | 33.50 | 62,901 | $55,819 | 20.8% | 6.5% |
| 34 | Lake Charles | 33.50 | 81,143 | $59,235 | 23.3% | 6.6% |
| 35 | Thibodaux | 33.50 | 15,732 | $52,072 | 19.6% | 4.3% |
| 36 | Carencro | 34.50 | 11,619 | $63,401 | 24.5% | 6.7% |
| 37 | Morgan City | 38.00 | 11,064 | $56,474 | 17.4% | 7.7% |
| 38 | Ponchatoula | 38.50 | 7,808 | $51,161 | 14.3% | 2.3% |
| 39 | DeRidder | 38.50 | 9,763 | $59,801 | 19.1% | 10.1% |
| 40 | Houma | 39.50 | 32,392 | $58,194 | 16.3% | 3.3% |
| 41 | Scott | 40.00 | 8,609 | $56,299 | 15.2% | 5.9% |
| 42 | Lafayette | 40.00 | 121,715 | $61,915 | 18.3% | 5.2% |
| 43 | Sulphur | 41.50 | 20,775 | $61,760 | 16.0% | 4.3% |
| 44 | St. Gabriel | 43.50 | 6,639 | $74,688 | 17.6% | 8.3% |
| 45 | Kenner | 44.00 | 64,904 | $64,020 | 15.4% | 6.6% |
| 46 | Slidell | 44.50 | 28,561 | $70,497 | 15.7% | 5.8% |
| 47 | Plaquemine | 46.50 | 6,075 | $69,366 | 12.7% | 3.8% |
| 48 | Covington | 50.00 | 11,658 | $75,851 | 11.7% | 5.6% |
| 49 | Gonzales | 50.50 | 13,108 | $75,451 | 9.0% | 7.9% |
| 50 | Walker | 50.50 | 6,390 | $80,707 | 12.5% | 6.8% |
| 51 | Denham Springs | 51.50 | 9,323 | $71,569 | 6.0% | 7.4% |
| 52 | Harahan | 52.50 | 8,904 | $79,516 | 7.5% | 3.8% |
| 53 | Broussard | 52.50 | 14,322 | $116,179 | 13.4% | 3.6% |
| 54 | Zachary | 53.00 | 19,952 | $84,480 | 8.5% | 6.9% |
| 55 | Youngsville | 53.50 | 17,427 | $105,876 | 9.1% | 1.2% |
| 56 | Mandeville | 55.00 | 12,946 | $94,405 | 7.1% | 2.9% |
| 57 | Central | 55.50 | 29,783 | $89,554 | 5.4% | 2.2% |
| 58 | Addis | 57.50 | 7,252 | $108,041 | 3.2% | 1.8% |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. 58 cities with more than 5,000 residents.
Summary
The poorest cities in Louisiana for 2026
Like we said earlier, when we set out to identify the poorest places in Louisiana, we weren’t sure what we’d encounter, but it ended up being some of the best places to live in Louisiana.
When you look at the data, the cities and places mentioned above meet the criteria for being at the very bottom of the income ladder for everyone that lives there. Not sold on Louisiana? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
