Best PlacesAcadia Parish, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Acadia Parish, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Acadia Parish ranks 2,899th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Acadia Parish
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Acadia Parish
The parts of Acadia Parish, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Iota
Heat risk is lower, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Church Point
It is quieter, though fewer households have young kids.
Rayne
Crime runs lower, though health care is harder to reach.
Crowley
Commutes are shorter, though schools score lower.
Scores across Acadia Parish run from about the 1st to the 72nd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Acadia Parish's strengths and weaknesses
Where Acadia Parish ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 95% of counties
- Low property taxBetter than 94% of counties
- Internet speedBetter than 89% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 68% of counties
- Local economyBetter than 66% of counties
Where Acadia Parish ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 4% of counties
- Health outlookBetter than only 6% of counties
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 6% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Acadia Parish
A household needs to earn about $43,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Acadia Parish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $59,745, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Acadia Parish's effective rate of 0.35%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Acadia Parish
Acadia Parish's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Acadia Parish.
Who works in Acadia Parish, and how
Work in Acadia Parish centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Acadia Parish
Acadia Parish has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties and less parkland per resident than most counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Acadia Parish and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Acadia Parish growing, and who is moving in?
Acadia Parish has lost about 10% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Lafayette, LA metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Acadia Parish go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Acadia Parish, month by month
Acadia Parish sees roughly 101 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 53° | 45° |
| April | 80° | 70° | 61° |
| July | 92° | 83° | 76° |
| October | 83° | 71° | 62° |
Flying in and out of Acadia Parish
The nearest airport, Lafayette Regional/Paul Fournet Field, is about 22 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 127 miles away.
The best schools in and around Acadia Parish
Schools across Acadia Parish average a C, better than 29% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Egan Elementary SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Mermentau Elementary SchoolA− · 62% proficient
- Evangeline Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
Top middle schools
- Iota Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Armstrong Middle SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
- Church Point Middle SchoolD · 23% proficient
Top high schools
- Iota High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Midland High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Rayne High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Acadia Parish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Acadia Parish measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Acadia Parish against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Acadia Parish suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 8% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Acadia Parish
Is Acadia Parish a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Acadia Parish ranks 2,899th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on a stable housing market, low property taxes, and fast internet, and lowest on state infrastructure and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Acadia Parish expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $174,620. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $59,745 median income, cost of living beats 36% of counties.
Is Acadia Parish safe?
Acadia Parish is safer than 14% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $674 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Acadia Parish?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 64 with lows near 45. That works out to about 101 pleasant days a year, more than 61% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Acadia Parish?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Iota, Church Point, and Rayne. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Acadia Parish with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Acadia Parish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Acadia Parish represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Acadia Parish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Acadia Parish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Acadia Parish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Acadia Parish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Acadia Parish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Acadia Parish detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.