Best PlacesRapides Parish, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Rapides 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.
Rapides Parish ranks 2,635th 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 Rapides 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 Rapides Parish
The parts of Rapides 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.
Pineville & Ball
Tree cover is thicker, fewer homes sit empty, and crime runs lower.
Glenmora & Woodworth
It is quieter and local pay stretches further.
Alexandria
Streets are more walkable, though incomes run lower.
Boyce
Fewer adults hold degrees and advertised internet is slower.
Scores across Rapides Parish run from about the 1st to the 79th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Rapides Parish's strengths and weaknesses
Rapides Parish ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Low property taxes, tree cover, and a stable housing market carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: state infrastructure, car insurance costs, and summer heat all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Rapides Parish ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 88% of counties
- Tree shadeBetter than 79% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 78% of counties
- Internet speedBetter than 68% of counties
- Short commute22.2 minutes each way, better than 64% of counties
Where Rapides Parish ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of counties
- Heat safetyBetter than only 8% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of counties
- Crime safetyBetter than only 19% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Rapides Parish
A household needs to earn about $47,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Rapides Parish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $61,984, 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 Rapides Parish's effective rate of 0.44%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Rapides Parish
Rapides 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 Rapides Parish.
Who works in Rapides Parish, and how
Work in Rapides 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 86%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Rapides Parish
Rapides Parish has less parkland per resident than most counties and less late-night activity than most counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Rapides Parish and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Rapides Parish growing, and who is moving in?
Rapides Parish has lost about 5% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Alexandria, LA metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Rapides Parish go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Rapides Parish, month by month
Rapides Parish sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs February through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 49° | 40° |
| April | 79° | 67° | 57° |
| July | 94° | 82° | 74° |
| October | 83° | 69° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Rapides Parish
The nearest airport, Alexandria International, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 158 miles away.
The best schools in and around Rapides Parish
Schools across Rapides Parish average a C, better than 30% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Phoenix Magnet Elementary SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Caroline Dormon Junior High SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Peabody Montessori Elementary SchoolA− · 56% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pineville Junior High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Tioga Junior High SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Vernon Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Anacoco High SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Alexandria Senior High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Grant High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Rapides Parish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Rapides 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 Rapides Parish against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Rapides Parish suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 7% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Rapides Parish
Is Rapides Parish a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Rapides Parish ranks 2,635th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low property taxes, tree cover, and a stable housing market, 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 Rapides Parish expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $188,592. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $61,984 median income, cost of living beats 30% of counties.
Is Rapides Parish safe?
Rapides Parish is safer than 19% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $628 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Rapides Parish?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 40. That works out to about 84 pleasant days a year, more than 44% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Rapides Parish?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Pineville & Ball, Glenmora & Woodworth, and Alexandria. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Rapides Parish good for families?
Schools beat 30% of counties, crime safety beats 19%, and childcare runs $731 a month.
Is Rapides Parish good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 30% of counties, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 68% of counties. About 7% of workers already work from home.
Compare Rapides Parish with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Rapides Parish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Rapides 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.
Rapides Parish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Rapides Parish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Rapides Parish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Rapides Parish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Rapides Parish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Rapides 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.