Assumption Parish vs St. James Parish

A side-by-side comparison of Assumption Parish and St. James Parish: population, income, housing, and more.

Assumption Parish and St. James Parish are counties in Louisiana. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Assumption Parish has the higher population (20,720 vs 19,797 in St. James Parish). St. James Parish has the higher median household income ($64,536 vs $52,546 in Assumption Parish). St. James Parish has the higher median home value ($197,800 vs $141,200 in Assumption Parish).

Population, income & housing

	Assumption Parish	St. James Parish
Population	20,720	19,797
Median age	42.0 yrs	40.8 yrs
Median household income	$52,546	$64,536
Median home value	$141,200	$197,800
Median gross rent	$801	$821
Housing units	10,039	8,651
Homeownership rate	85.5%	85.5%
Bachelor's degree or higher	13.7%	20.2%
Unemployment rate	4.9%	5.4%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Assumption Parish	St. James Parish
Population	22,478 → 20,720 (-7.8%)	21,308 → 19,797 (-7.1%)
Median household income	$43,759 → $52,546 (+20.1%)	$51,603 → $64,536 (+25.1%)
Median home value	$118,600 → $141,200 (+19.1%)	$158,500 → $197,800 (+24.8%)
Median gross rent	$797 → $801 (+0.5%)	$644 → $821 (+27.5%)

Assumption Parish

Population

22,47820,720

Median household income

$43,759$52,546

Median home value

$118,600$141,200

Median gross rent

$797$801

St. James Parish

Population

21,30819,797

Median household income

$51,603$64,536

Median home value

$158,500$197,800

Median gross rent

$644$821

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Assumption Parish	St. James Parish
Under 5	5.0%	5.7%
5 to 17	15.8%	16.7%
18 to 24	8.2%	7.6%
25 to 34	11.2%	11.4%
35 to 44	12.2%	13.9%
45 to 54	13.0%	10.8%
55 to 64	14.5%	15.0%
65 to 74	12.5%	11.5%
75 and over	7.7%	7.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Assumption Parish	St. James Parish
White (non-Hispanic)	64.3%	49.1%
Black or African American	28.6%	48.4%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.6%	0.0%
Asian	0.8%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.1%	0.0%
Two or more races	1.4%	0.6%
Hispanic or Latino	4.2%	1.9%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Assumption Parish	St. James Parish
No high school diploma	21.8%	11.4%
High school graduate	44.0%	40.8%
Some college or associate's	20.6%	27.7%
Bachelor's degree	9.0%	15.0%
Graduate or professional degree	4.7%	5.2%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Assumption Parish	St. James Parish
Drove alone	85.7%	84.1%
Carpooled	7.7%	6.9%
Public transit	1.0%	0.3%
Walked	1.9%	1.3%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	2.9%	6.3%
Other means	0.7%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Assumption Parish	St. James Parish
1-unit, detached	61.7%	75.0%
1-unit, attached	0.8%	0.1%
2 to 4 units	2.4%	6.2%
5 to 19 units	0.7%	0.0%
20 or more units	0.3%	0.5%
Mobile home & other	34.1%	18.2%

Poverty & households

	Assumption Parish	St. James Parish
Poverty rate	13.9%	10.5%
Average household size	2.44	2.64
Mean commute (minutes)	31	28
Median year structure built	1982	1985