New Orleans’s neighborhoods conjure up too many stereotypes to count. You’ve got hipster areas, preppy places, neighborhoods where college kids thrive, and of course, ghettos.
It seems as if there’s a neighborhood for everyone in New Orleans.
And while the city consistently ranks as one of the best places to live in Louisiana thanks in part to tons of entertainment and jobs, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine in New Orleans. Some neighborhoods aren’t as safe as others.
So the question arises, which New Orleans neighborhoods are the most dangerous and which are the safest?
Today, we’ll use Saturday Night Science to determine which New Orleans hoods need a little tender loving care. We examined 68 of New Orleans’s neighborhoods to find out the most dangerous places to live.
$14,134 median income
$11,128 median income
$22,383 median income
$16,999 median income
$24,114 median income
$20,465 median income
$28,535 median income
$28,384 median income
$23,281 median income
$26,052 median income
The receipts
Compare the top ten
Pick a metric. The bars rescale. The red line is Louisiana’s statewide median.
Louisiana statewide median: $211,635
Louisiana statewide median: $60,756
Saturday Night Science
Methodology: How we determined the most dangerous New Orleans neighborhoods in 2026
To figure out how bad a place is to live in, we only needed to know what kinds of things people like and then decide what places have the least amount of those things. We plugged the following criteria into Saturday Night Science to get the worst neighborhoods in New Orleans:
- High crime (Estimated)
- High unemployment (Less jobs)
- Low median income (Less pay)
- Low population density (No things to do)
- Low home values (No one’s willing to pay to live here)
Then, we ranked each neighborhood in New Orleans, Louisiana for each of these criteria from worst to best.
Next, we averaged the individual rankings for each criterion into a “Worst Score.”
The neighborhood with the lowest “Worst Score” ranks as the most dangerous neighborhood of New Orleans.
The article is an opinion based on facts and is meant as infotainment. We updated this article for 2026. Skip to the end to see the list of all 68 neighborhoods ranked from worst to best.
The full plate
Most dangerous neighborhoods to live in New Orleans for 2026
Click any column to sort. Search by neighborhood name.
| Rank | Neighborhood | Population | Home Value | Median Income |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Desire | 2,667 | $93,600 | $14,134 |
| 2 | Viavant-Venetian Isles | 677 | $77,700 | $11,128 |
| 3 | Pines Village | 3,835 | $160,175 | $22,383 |
| 4 | Fischer Dev | 1,037 | $152,400 | $16,999 |
| 5 | West Lake Forest | 5,650 | $138,417 | $24,114 |
| 6 | Florida | 1,522 | $96,900 | $20,465 |
| 7 | Lower 9th Ward | 4,351 | $168,833 | $28,535 |
| 8 | Behrman | 7,838 | $143,986 | $28,384 |
| 9 | Saint Roch | 6,398 | $141,788 | $23,281 |
| 10 | Saint Claude | 6,562 | $156,929 | $26,052 |
| 11 | Pontchartrain Park | 1,790 | $155,200 | $35,575 |
| 12 | Holy Cross | 2,862 | $171,350 | $39,040 |
| 13 | McDonogh | 2,103 | $137,200 | $31,159 |
| 14 | Saint Bernard Area | 2,472 | $106,033 | $21,394 |
| 15 | Gert Town | 5,187 | $125,100 | $25,182 |
| 16 | Bywater | 3,922 | $328,362 | $54,952 |
| 17 | Treme’ Lafitte | 4,617 | $324,617 | $29,668 |
| 18 | Saint Thomas | 1,974 | $115,700 | $24,507 |
| 19 | Plum Orchard | 5,813 | $136,560 | $25,744 |
| 20 | Whitney | 1,878 | $162,400 | $41,928 |
| 21 | Dillard | 4,850 | $168,820 | $23,199 |
| 21 | New Aurora-English Turn | 3,529 | $119,700 | $36,480 |
| 23 | Village De L’est | 8,709 | $132,600 | $42,923 |
| 24 | Tulane-Gravier | 3,775 | $281,767 | $22,516 |
| 25 | Read Blvd West | 4,730 | $145,300 | $31,998 |
| 26 | Central City | 14,110 | $218,212 | $32,318 |
| 27 | Holly Grove | 5,564 | $139,633 | $28,373 |
| 28 | Saint Anthony | 4,618 | $151,180 | $36,796 |
| 29 | Read Blvd East | 8,886 | $196,500 | $58,658 |
| 30 | Seventh Ward | 11,595 | $193,861 | $30,859 |
| 31 | Dixon | 2,179 | $168,200 | $21,085 |
| 32 | Little Woods | 33,284 | $166,974 | $36,047 |
| 33 | Us Naval Base | 2,016 | $223,267 | $45,752 |
| 34 | Lake Catherine | 677 | $226,800 | $61,250 |
| 35 | Gentilly Woods | 4,116 | $151,900 | $37,011 |
| 36 | Gentilly Terrace | 10,066 | $187,290 | $58,412 |
| 37 | Tall Timbers-Brechtel | 13,387 | $200,300 | $58,312 |
| 38 | Bayou Saint John | 3,880 | $254,380 | $40,102 |
| 39 | Milneburg | 4,930 | $210,940 | $42,978 |
| 40 | City Park | 2,927 | $376,922 | $78,471 |
| 41 | Milan | 5,911 | $378,867 | $52,421 |
| 42 | Leonidas | 7,179 | $273,944 | $46,720 |
| 43 | Broadmoor | 6,970 | $321,314 | $59,622 |
| 44 | Fairgrounds | 5,134 | $275,160 | $57,860 |
| 45 | Mid-City | 14,578 | $307,875 | $55,538 |
| 45 | Fillmore | 6,495 | $257,150 | $62,644 |
| 47 | Lake Terrace And Oaks | 1,497 | $445,500 | $118,576 |
| 48 | Old Aurora | 15,830 | $203,820 | $62,243 |
| 48 | Marigny | 3,751 | $421,317 | $61,848 |
| 50 | Lower Garden District | 5,112 | $492,475 | $83,093 |
| 51 | West Riverside | 4,946 | $472,333 | $79,431 |
| 52 | Algeirs Point | 2,574 | $347,367 | $65,622 |
| 53 | Navarre | 2,263 | $345,300 | $68,593 |
| 54 | Garden District | 3,212 | $480,823 | $63,148 |
| 55 | Central Business District | 2,976 | $453,250 | $60,982 |
| 56 | French Quarter | 3,181 | $510,186 | $62,944 |
| 57 | Irish Channel | 3,425 | $462,429 | $80,785 |
| 58 | Freret | 1,969 | $348,433 | $59,532 |
| 59 | West End | 3,281 | $381,325 | $69,364 |
| 60 | Lake Shore-Lake Vista | 2,423 | $552,200 | $120,649 |
| 61 | Touro | 2,502 | $621,167 | $81,285 |
| 62 | Marlyville-Fontainebleau | 5,994 | $423,243 | $82,700 |
| 63 | East Carollton | 4,185 | $457,200 | $77,204 |
| 64 | East Riverside | 3,235 | $400,100 | $92,052 |
| 65 | Lakeview | 8,762 | $454,136 | $115,696 |
| 66 | Black Pearl | 1,922 | $400,350 | $79,701 |
| 67 | Uptown | 6,297 | $473,300 | $100,032 |
| 68 | Audubon | 16,004 | $704,812 | $105,976 |
Source: U.S. Census ACS 2020-2024. All 68 New Orleans neighborhoods.
Summary
Summary: The worst neighborhoods around New Orleans
Well, there you have it — the worst of the neighborhoods in New Orleans with Desire landing at the bottom of the pack.
The worst neighborhoods in New Orleans are Desire, Viavant-Venetian Isles, Pines Village, Fischer Dev, West Lake Forest, Florida, Lower 9th Ward, Behrman, Saint Roch, and Saint Claude.
As mentioned earlier, the neighborhoods in New Orleans aren’t all bad. Audubon takes the cake as the best place to live in New Orleans.
We ranked the neighborhoods from worst to best in the chart below. Not sold on Louisiana? Take the two-minute Find Your Place quiz and see which state actually fits you.
Questions and answers
Worst Neighborhoods In New Orleans FAQs
What is the most dangerous neighborhood in New Orleans?
Desire ranks as the worst neighborhood in New Orleans for 2026, according to Saturday Night Science. Viavant-Venetian Isles and Pines Village are next on the list.
What are the worst neighborhoods in New Orleans?
The worst-ranked neighborhoods in New Orleans are Desire, Viavant-Venetian Isles, Pines Village, Fischer Dev, West Lake Forest, Florida, Lower 9th Ward, Behrman, Saint Roch, and Saint Claude. We scored all 68 neighborhoods in the city.
Why does Desire rank as the worst?
Desire posts the roughest combined numbers in New Orleans: a median household income of $14,134 and a median home value of $93,600, with crime, unemployment, and density folded into the score.
Are these neighborhoods dangerous everywhere?
No. The scores are neighborhood-wide averages, and conditions change block by block and hour by hour. Plenty of people live in these neighborhoods without incident; the numbers just say the odds run tougher.
How do you rank the worst neighborhoods?
Each neighborhood is scored on crime, unemployment, income, density, and home values, using Census tract and FBI data. The worst combined score tops the list.
