Best PlacesCalcasieu Parish, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Calcasieu 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.
Calcasieu Parish ranks 2,428th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on state infrastructure and car insurance costs. It does better on low property taxes, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in Calcasieu 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 Calcasieu Parish
The parts of Calcasieu 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.
Westlake & Moss Bluff
Local pay stretches further, incomes run higher, and it is quieter.
Lake Charles
More adults hold degrees, though tree cover is thinner.
Carlyss & Vinton
Fewer homes sit empty, though advertised internet is slower.
Sulphur
More households have young kids and schools score higher.
Dequincy
Heat risk is lower and prices have run up less.
Iowa
Crime runs higher and health care is harder to reach.
Scores across Calcasieu Parish run from about the 1st to the 79th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Calcasieu Parish's strengths and weaknesses
Calcasieu Parish ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Low property taxes, fast internet, and cell coverage carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: state infrastructure, car insurance costs, and disaster risk all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Calcasieu Parish ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 90% of counties
- Internet speedBetter than 82% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 80% of counties
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 78% of counties
- Short commute21.1 minutes each way, better than 72% of counties
Where Calcasieu Parish ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of counties
- Air qualityBetter than only 10% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Calcasieu Parish
A household needs to earn about $60,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Calcasieu Parish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $74,367, 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 Calcasieu Parish's effective rate of 0.42%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Calcasieu Parish
Calcasieu Parish runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Calcasieu Parish.
Who works in Calcasieu Parish, and how
Work in Calcasieu Parish centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Calcasieu Parish
Calcasieu Parish has more restaurants and bars per resident than 68% of counties and less parkland per resident than most counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Calcasieu Parish and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Calcasieu Parish growing, and who is moving in?
Calcasieu Parish has grown about 5% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Shreveport, LA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Calcasieu Parish go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Calcasieu Parish, month by month
Calcasieu Parish sees roughly 96 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 44. The comfortable stretch runs February through May and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 52° | 44° |
| April | 78° | 68° | 60° |
| July | 91° | 82° | 76° |
| October | 83° | 71° | 62° |
Flying in and out of Calcasieu Parish
The nearest airport, Lake Charles Regional, is about 7 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is George Bush Intcntl/Houston, about 126 miles away.
The best schools in and around Calcasieu Parish
Schools across Calcasieu Parish average a C−, better than 27% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- T. S. Cooley Elementary Magnet SchoolA+ · 91% proficient
- Vincent Settlement Elementary SchoolA− · 60% proficient
- Prien Lake Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
Top middle schools
- Moss Bluff Middle SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- W. W. Lewis Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Maplewood Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- Sam Houston High SchoolB · 45% proficient
- Alfred M. Barbe High SchoolB− · 44% proficient
- Sulphur High SchoolB− · 41% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Calcasieu Parish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Calcasieu 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 Calcasieu Parish against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Calcasieu Parish suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 78% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 7% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Calcasieu Parish
Is Calcasieu Parish a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Calcasieu Parish ranks 2,428th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low property taxes, fast internet, and cell coverage, 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 Calcasieu Parish expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $240,641. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $74,367 median income, cost of living beats 78% of counties.
Is Calcasieu Parish safe?
Calcasieu Parish is safer than 29% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $551 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Calcasieu Parish?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 63 with lows near 44. That works out to about 96 pleasant days a year, more than 58% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Calcasieu Parish?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Westlake & Moss Bluff, Lake Charles, and Carlyss & Vinton. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Calcasieu Parish good for families?
Schools beat 27% of counties, crime safety beats 29%, and childcare runs $710 a month.
Is Calcasieu Parish good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 78% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 82% of counties. About 7% of workers already work from home.
Compare Calcasieu Parish with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Calcasieu Parish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Calcasieu 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.
Calcasieu Parish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Calcasieu Parish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Calcasieu Parish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Calcasieu Parish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Calcasieu Parish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Calcasieu 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.