Calcasieu Parish vs Lafayette Parish

A side-by-side comparison of Calcasieu Parish and Lafayette Parish: population, income, housing, and more.

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

Lafayette Parish has the higher population (245,075 vs 208,668 in Calcasieu Parish). Calcasieu Parish has the higher median household income ($67,849 vs $67,660 in Lafayette Parish). Lafayette Parish has the higher median home value ($234,200 vs $208,500 in Calcasieu Parish).

Population, income & housing

	Calcasieu Parish	Lafayette Parish
Population	208,668	245,075
Median age	37.2 yrs	36.4 yrs
Median household income	$67,849	$67,660
Median home value	$208,500	$234,200
Median gross rent	$1,096	$1,022
Housing units	94,462	110,400
Homeownership rate	72.2%	66.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher	24.7%	34.9%
Unemployment rate	5.5%	5.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Calcasieu Parish	Lafayette Parish
Population	201,619 → 208,668 (+3.5%)	241,973 → 245,075 (+1.3%)
Median household income	$51,148 → $67,849 (+32.7%)	$56,999 → $67,660 (+18.7%)
Median home value	$156,800 → $208,500 (+33.0%)	$185,300 → $234,200 (+26.4%)
Median gross rent	$832 → $1,096 (+31.7%)	$874 → $1,022 (+16.9%)

Calcasieu Parish

Population

201,619208,668

Median household income

$51,148$67,849

Median home value

$156,800$208,500

Median gross rent

$832$1,096

Lafayette Parish

Population

241,973245,075

Median household income

$56,999$67,660

Median home value

$185,300$234,200

Median gross rent

$874$1,022

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Calcasieu Parish	Lafayette Parish
Under 5	6.9%	6.6%
5 to 17	18.2%	17.5%
18 to 24	8.3%	8.1%
25 to 34	13.9%	15.2%
35 to 44	13.0%	14.2%
45 to 54	11.4%	11.6%
55 to 64	12.7%	12.3%
65 to 74	9.6%	9.1%
75 and over	6.0%	5.3%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Calcasieu Parish	Lafayette Parish
White (non-Hispanic)	65.3%	62.5%
Black or African American	23.7%	25.3%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.1%
Asian	1.5%	1.9%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.1%
Some other race	0.5%	0.4%
Two or more races	3.7%	3.3%
Hispanic or Latino	5.2%	6.5%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Calcasieu Parish	Lafayette Parish
No high school diploma	10.6%	10.1%
High school graduate	34.4%	28.9%
Some college or associate's	30.3%	26.1%
Bachelor's degree	16.3%	24.3%
Graduate or professional degree	8.4%	10.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Calcasieu Parish	Lafayette Parish
Drove alone	82.6%	81.8%
Carpooled	9.2%	5.4%
Public transit	0.2%	0.6%
Walked	1.7%	1.7%
Bicycle	0.2%	0.2%
Worked from home	5.1%	9.1%
Other means	1.1%	1.1%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Calcasieu Parish	Lafayette Parish
1-unit, detached	67.6%	67.8%
1-unit, attached	1.4%	2.2%
2 to 4 units	5.9%	5.5%
5 to 19 units	6.0%	8.8%
20 or more units	3.9%	5.4%
Mobile home & other	15.2%	10.3%

Poverty & households

	Calcasieu Parish	Lafayette Parish
Poverty rate	17.8%	17.4%
Average household size	2.67	2.43
Mean commute (minutes)	22	23
Median year structure built	1988	1988