Baton Rouge vs Central

A side-by-side comparison of Baton Rouge and Central: population, income, housing, and more.

Baton Rouge and Central are places in Louisiana. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Baton Rouge has the higher population (223,699 vs 29,603 in Central). Central has the higher median household income ($90,091 vs $49,944 in Baton Rouge). Central has the higher median home value ($270,700 vs $224,500 in Baton Rouge).

Population, income & housing

	Baton Rouge	Central
Population	223,699	29,603
Median age	31.8 yrs	40.3 yrs
Median household income	$49,944	$90,091
Median home value	$224,500	$270,700
Median gross rent	$1,044	$1,373
Housing units	106,421	12,116
Homeownership rate	46.9%	89.3%
Bachelor's degree or higher	35.8%	32.7%
Unemployment rate	9.1%	1.2%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Baton Rouge	Central
Population	224,149 → 223,699 (-0.2%)	29,107 → 29,603 (+1.7%)
Median household income	$44,470 → $49,944 (+12.3%)	$80,015 → $90,091 (+12.6%)
Median home value	$174,000 → $224,500 (+29.0%)	$217,700 → $270,700 (+24.3%)
Median gross rent	$879 → $1,044 (+18.8%)	$928 → $1,373 (+48.0%)

Baton Rouge

Population

224,149223,699

Median household income

$44,470$49,944

Median home value

$174,000$224,500

Median gross rent

$879$1,044

Central

Population

29,10729,603

Median household income

$80,015$90,091

Median home value

$217,700$270,700

Median gross rent

$928$1,373

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Baton Rouge	Central
Under 5	6.3%	5.2%
5 to 17	14.5%	20.9%
18 to 24	19.1%	6.9%
25 to 34	14.0%	8.6%
35 to 44	10.9%	15.7%
45 to 54	9.9%	9.8%
55 to 64	11.1%	15.0%
65 to 74	8.4%	10.7%
75 and over	5.9%	7.1%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Baton Rouge	Central
White (non-Hispanic)	34.9%	78.3%
Black or African American	50.9%	11.6%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	3.6%	0.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.5%	0.2%
Two or more races	3.4%	4.7%
Hispanic or Latino	6.5%	4.8%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Baton Rouge	Central
No high school diploma	12.5%	3.9%
High school graduate	26.4%	33.9%
Some college or associate's	25.3%	29.6%
Bachelor's degree	20.0%	21.8%
Graduate or professional degree	15.8%	10.9%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Baton Rouge	Central
Drove alone	75.0%	85.3%
Carpooled	11.0%	5.5%
Public transit	1.5%	0.0%
Walked	3.8%	1.1%
Bicycle	0.6%	0.0%
Worked from home	7.1%	6.8%
Other means	1.0%	1.3%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Baton Rouge	Central
1-unit, detached	54.8%	84.3%
1-unit, attached	2.9%	0.5%
2 to 4 units	10.7%	2.2%
5 to 19 units	14.0%	1.4%
20 or more units	16.7%	2.7%
Mobile home & other	0.8%	8.9%

Poverty & households

	Baton Rouge	Central
Poverty rate	25.0%	5.7%
Average household size	2.41	2.61
Mean commute (minutes)	21	29
Median year structure built	1975	1988