Best PlacesDonaldsonville, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Donaldsonville, 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.
Donaldsonville ranks 49,988th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Donaldsonville
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.
Donaldsonville's strengths and weaknesses
Where Donaldsonville ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 97% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 96% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of towns
- BikingBetter than 87% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 86% of towns
Where Donaldsonville ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Donaldsonville
A household needs to earn about $50,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Donaldsonville home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $36,738, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Donaldsonville's effective rate of 0.23%, 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 Donaldsonville
Donaldsonville runs younger than the country, though it still carries a larger-than-average share of residents over 65.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Donaldsonville.
Who works in Donaldsonville, and how
Work in Donaldsonville centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Donaldsonville
Donaldsonville has more restaurants and bars per resident than 76% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Donaldsonville and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Donaldsonville, month by month
Donaldsonville sees roughly 108 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 44. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 53° | 44° |
| April | 81° | 69° | 59° |
| July | 93° | 82° | 75° |
| October | 83° | 71° | 62° |
Flying in and out of Donaldsonville
The nearest airport, Baton Rouge Metro, Ryan Field, is about 31 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 45 miles away.
The best schools in and around Donaldsonville
Schools across Donaldsonville average a D−, better than 3% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Lowery Elementary SchoolD− · 13% proficient
Top middle schools
- Belle Rose Middle SchoolD− · 13% proficient
- Lowery Middle SchoolF · 12% proficient
Top high schools
- St. James High SchoolC− · 29% proficient
- Donaldsonville High SchoolD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Donaldsonville school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Donaldsonville 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 Donaldsonville against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Donaldsonville
Is Donaldsonville a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Donaldsonville ranks 49,988th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, walkability, and cell coverage, and lowest on car insurance costs and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Donaldsonville expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $208,524. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $36,738 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.
Is Donaldsonville safe?
Donaldsonville is safer than 3% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $1,014 per resident a year.
Compare Donaldsonville with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Donaldsonville. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Donaldsonville 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.
Donaldsonville detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Donaldsonville: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Donaldsonville: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Donaldsonville: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Donaldsonville: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Donaldsonville 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.
- 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.