Best PlacesLafayette Parish, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Lafayette 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.
Lafayette Parish ranks 1,892nd of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on car insurance costs and state infrastructure. It does better on fast internet, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in Lafayette 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 Lafayette Parish
The parts of Lafayette 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.
Youngsville & Broussard
Heat risk is lower, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Lafayette & Duson
Fewer households have young kids and fewer residents vote.
Carencro & Scott
Homes cost less, though fewer adults hold degrees.
Scores across Lafayette Parish run from about the 1st to the 90th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Lafayette Parish's strengths and weaknesses
Lafayette Parish lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Fast internet is the standout, in the top 1% of counties. Cell coverage and what local pay buys follow.
The one real hole is car insurance costs, near the bottom of the country. State infrastructure and disaster risk also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Lafayette Parish to another than it does between Lafayette Parish and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Lafayette Parish ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 99% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 93% of counties
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 86% of counties
- Local economyBetter than 81% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 78% of counties
Where Lafayette Parish ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of counties
- Heat safetyBetter than only 12% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Lafayette Parish
A household needs to earn about $65,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lafayette Parish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $80,651, 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 Lafayette Parish's effective rate of 0.54%, 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 Lafayette Parish
Lafayette 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 Lafayette Parish.
Who works in Lafayette Parish, and how
Work in Lafayette Parish centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 83%
- Work from home 12%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Lafayette Parish
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Lafayette Parish.
Is Lafayette Parish growing, and who is moving in?
Lafayette Parish has grown about 8% 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 Lafayette Parish go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Lafayette Parish, month by month
Lafayette Parish sees roughly 115 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 Lafayette Parish
The nearest airport, Lafayette Regional/Paul Fournet Field, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 108 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lafayette Parish
Schools across Lafayette Parish average a C+, better than 43% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Ernest Gallet Elementary SchoolA · 64% proficient
- Green T. Lindon Elementary SchoolA− · 59% proficient
- Broadmoor Elementary SchoolA− · 59% proficient
Top middle schools
- L.j. Alleman Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Edgar Martin Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Youngsville Middle SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top high schools
- Early College AcademyA+ · 87% proficient
- David Thibodaux Stem Magnet AcademyB+ · 52% proficient
- Lafayette High SchoolB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lafayette Parish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lafayette 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 Lafayette Parish against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Lafayette Parish suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 86% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 12% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Lafayette Parish
Is Lafayette Parish a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lafayette Parish ranks 1,892nd of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on fast internet, cell coverage, and what local pay buys, 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 Lafayette Parish expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $259,590. The overall cost of living runs about 17% below the national average. Set against a $80,651 median income, cost of living beats 86% of counties.
Is Lafayette Parish safe?
Lafayette Parish is safer than 24% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $593 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lafayette Parish?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 64 with lows near 45. That works out to about 115 pleasant days a year, more than 71% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Lafayette Parish?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Youngsville & Broussard, Lafayette & Duson, and Carencro & Scott. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Lafayette Parish good for families?
Schools beat 43% of counties, crime safety beats 24%, and childcare runs $735 a month.
Is Lafayette Parish good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 86% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 99% of counties. About 12% of workers already work from home.
Compare Lafayette Parish with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lafayette Parish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lafayette 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.
Lafayette Parish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lafayette Parish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lafayette Parish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lafayette Parish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lafayette Parish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lafayette 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.