Best PlacesRichland Parish, LA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Richland 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Richland Parish ranks 3,066th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.

#3,066
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Richland Parish

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Richland Parish area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Richland Parish's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Low property taxes
Top 5%A stable housing market
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Richland Parish with other counties.

Where Richland Parish ranks high

  • Low property taxBetter than 98% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 96% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$625 a month, better than 70% of counties
  • Cell coverageBetter than 58% of counties
  • Internet speedBetter than 54% of counties

Where Richland Parish ranks low

  • State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
  • School gradeD−, better than only 1% of counties
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of counties
  • Educational attainmentBetter than only 7% of counties
  • Health outlookBetter than only 7% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Richland Parish

A household needs to earn about $34,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Richland Parish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $56,009, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$34,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$787
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $139,713 home
Median rent
$915
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$712
Property tax$28
Homeowners insurance$47

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 Richland 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Richland Parish

Richland Parish's age mix sits close to the national median.

Median age
39
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
19%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.6
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1823%
18 to 3421%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6419%
65 and older19%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Richland Parish.


Who works in Richland Parish, and how

Work in Richland Parish centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
6%
below the national average
Unemployment
5.8%
above the national average
Job growth
+3.1%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social19%
Retail trade13%
Manufacturing8%
Construction8%
Public administration7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 90%
  • Work from home 6%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Richland Parish

Richland Parish has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Richland Parish and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
74
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 36.9 per 10,000 residents, more than 28% of counties
Coffee shops
7
about 3.5 per 10,000 residents, more than 25% of counties

Is Richland Parish growing, and who is moving in?

Richland Parish has lost about 5% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the Monroe, LA metro.

Population growth
-5%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
19,643
down from 20,759
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

The rest of the Monroe, LA metro261 / yr
Winn Parish, LA80 / yr
Fairbanks, AK64 / yr
Baton Rouge, LA64 / yr
Dallas, TX61 / yr

Where people leaving Richland Parish go

The rest of the Monroe, LA metro411 / yr
Baton Rouge, LA176 / yr
Alexandria, LA174 / yr
Howard County, TX50 / yr
Boone County, AR46 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Richland Parish, month by month

Richland Parish sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January59°47°39°
April78°66°56°
July94°83°74°
October82°68°57°

Flying in and out of Richland Parish

The nearest airport, Monroe Regional, is about 19 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 190 miles away.

Nearest airport
MLU
Monroe Regional, about 19 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
221st-busiest in the US, 5 nonstop destinations
Average drive
27 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Richland Parish

Schools across Richland Parish average a D−, better than 1% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Richland Parish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Richland 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 Richland Parish against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Richland Parish suits

Families

Schools land around the 1st percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

6% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Richland Parish

Is Richland Parish a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Richland Parish ranks 3,066th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low property taxes, a stable housing market, and affordable childcare, and lowest on state infrastructure and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Richland Parish expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $139,713. The overall cost of living runs about 11% below the national average. Set against a $56,009 median income, cost of living beats 9% of counties.

Is Richland Parish safe?

Richland Parish is safer than 8% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $748 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Richland Parish?

July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 59 with lows near 39. That works out to about 81 pleasant days a year, more than 40% of counties.

Is Richland Parish good for families?

Schools beat 1% of counties, crime safety beats 8%, and childcare runs $625 a month.


Compare Richland Parish with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Richland Parish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Richland 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.

Richland Parish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Richland Parish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Richland Parish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Richland Parish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Richland Parish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Richland Parish detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.