Lake Charles vs Prien

A side-by-side comparison of Lake Charles and Prien: population, income, housing, and more.

Lake Charles and Prien are places in Louisiana. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Lake Charles has the higher population (81,679 vs 8,248 in Prien). Prien has the higher median household income ($91,300 vs $56,864 in Lake Charles). Prien has the higher median home value ($278,400 vs $204,000 in Lake Charles).

Population, income & housing

	Lake Charles	Prien
Population	81,679	8,248
Median age	36.2 yrs	37.1 yrs
Median household income	$56,864	$91,300
Median home value	$204,000	$278,400
Median gross rent	$1,090	$1,398
Housing units	40,146	3,324
Homeownership rate	61.1%	84.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	29.4%	41.6%
Unemployment rate	5.5%	6.9%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Lake Charles	Prien
Population	77,283 → 81,679 (+5.7%)	8,437 → 8,248 (-2.2%)
Median household income	$42,942 → $56,864 (+32.4%)	$82,140 → $91,300 (+11.2%)
Median home value	$155,700 → $204,000 (+31.0%)	$241,300 → $278,400 (+15.4%)
Median gross rent	$816 → $1,090 (+33.6%)	$1,456 → $1,398 (-4.0%)

Lake Charles

Population

77,28381,679

Median household income

$42,942$56,864

Median home value

$155,700$204,000

Median gross rent

$816$1,090

Prien

Population

8,4378,248

Median household income

$82,140$91,300

Median home value

$241,300$278,400

Median gross rent

$1,456$1,398

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Lake Charles	Prien
Under 5	6.5%	11.7%
5 to 17	15.9%	20.1%
18 to 24	11.0%	5.6%
25 to 34	15.2%	8.9%
35 to 44	11.8%	13.1%
45 to 54	10.5%	12.3%
55 to 64	12.2%	15.7%
65 to 74	9.7%	7.7%
75 and over	7.3%	4.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Lake Charles	Prien
White (non-Hispanic)	46.5%	80.6%
Black or African American	42.8%	11.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.2%	0.1%
Asian	2.5%	0.5%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.0%
Two or more races	2.9%	4.0%
Hispanic or Latino	4.7%	3.2%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Lake Charles	Prien
No high school diploma	9.8%	0.5%
High school graduate	30.1%	30.8%
Some college or associate's	30.7%	27.1%
Bachelor's degree	18.3%	23.4%
Graduate or professional degree	11.1%	18.3%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Lake Charles	Prien
Drove alone	81.4%	90.7%
Carpooled	9.4%	3.7%
Public transit	0.1%	0.0%
Walked	2.7%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.3%	0.7%
Worked from home	4.8%	4.9%
Other means	1.3%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Lake Charles	Prien
1-unit, detached	68.1%	89.6%
1-unit, attached	2.6%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	8.2%	2.6%
5 to 19 units	10.8%	0.0%
20 or more units	8.1%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	2.1%	7.8%

Poverty & households

	Lake Charles	Prien
Poverty rate	23.2%	5.6%
Average household size	2.49	2.80
Mean commute (minutes)	18	18
Median year structure built	1979	1995