Best PlacesBienville Parish, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Bienville Parish, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Bienville Parish ranks 3,103rd of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and health outcomes rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Bienville 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.
Bienville Parish's strengths and weaknesses
Where Bienville Parish ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 98% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 96% of counties
- Tree shadeBetter than 92% of counties
- QuietBetter than 69% of counties
- Cheap childcare$636 a month, better than 69% of counties
Where Bienville Parish ranks low
- Health outlookBetter than only 1% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
- Household income$37,991 median, better than only 1% of counties
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 2% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 4% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Bienville Parish
A household needs to earn about $26,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Bienville Parish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $37,991, 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 Bienville Parish's effective rate of 0.24%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Bienville Parish
Bienville Parish runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Bienville Parish.
Who works in Bienville Parish, and how
Work in Bienville Parish centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Bienville Parish
Bienville Parish has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Bienville Parish and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Bienville Parish growing, and who is moving in?
Bienville Parish has lost about 10% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Webster Parish, LA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Bienville Parish go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Bienville Parish, month by month
Bienville Parish sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 58, with lows near 38. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 58° | 46° | 38° |
| April | 78° | 65° | 55° |
| July | 93° | 82° | 74° |
| October | 80° | 67° | 57° |
Flying in and out of Bienville Parish
The nearest airport, Shreveport Regional, is about 44 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is George Bush Intcntl/Houston, about 213 miles away.
The best schools in and around Bienville Parish
Schools across Bienville Parish average a C−, better than 19% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Ringgold Elementary SchoolD− · 13% proficient
- Crawford Elementary SchoolD− · 12% proficient
- Central Elementary SchoolF · 10% proficient
Top high schools
- Lakeside Junior-senior High SchoolC · 34% proficient
- Arcadia High SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Ringgold High SchoolD− · 17% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Bienville Parish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Bienville 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 Bienville Parish against the other 3,143 counties.
Common questions about living in Bienville Parish
Is Bienville Parish a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Bienville Parish ranks 3,103rd of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low property taxes, a stable housing market, and tree cover, and lowest on health outcomes and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Bienville Parish expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $109,416. The overall cost of living runs about 22% below the national average. Set against a $37,991 median income, cost of living beats 2% of counties.
Is Bienville Parish safe?
Bienville Parish is safer than 6% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $785 per resident a year.
Compare Bienville Parish with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Bienville Parish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Bienville 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.
Bienville Parish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Bienville Parish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Bienville Parish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Bienville Parish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Bienville Parish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Bienville 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.