St. Landry Parish, Louisiana

• Income gap: Households earn meaningfully less than the national median, which directly affects retail demand, housing absorption, and tax base.
• Below the state median: Median household income runs $16,294 (26.8%) under the Louisiana median, so statewide income averages overstate local household buying power.
• Cost of living stretches income further: Local prices run 11.8% below the national average, so the nominal median of $44,462 is worth $50,410 at national average prices. BEA publishes price parity at state level, not county level.
• Elevated poverty: At 26.8%, the rate is in economically distressed territory and supports federal funding narratives (CDFI, NMTC, EDA).
• Talent gap: Bachelor's-or-higher attainment trails the national average by 20.8 pts, relevant for advanced-services attraction strategy.

• Largest private-sector industry: Health Care and Social Assistance employs 4,280 workers (24.9% of tracked sectors), at an average wage of $41,093. Every industry figure on this page is private sector; government employs a further 4,866 and is counted separately.
• Economic scale: Regional GDP of $3.2B (2024).
• Wage stratification: Transportation and Warehousing averages $69,631 while Accommodation and Food Services averages $20,878, a 3.3x spread in the same local economy, with implications for workforce development and talent strategy.

• Top specialization: Pipeline Transportation concentrates at 12.10x the national norm, top-decile concentration, the kind of signature sector that defines a region's economic identity to site selectors.
• Cluster depth: 14 sub-sectors register LQ ≥ 1.5, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 48.4% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Demand reaches this base from more than one market rather than from a single one.

• In line with national: Home value to income ratio of 3.2x sits near the ~4.1x national average; affordability is neither a clear advantage nor a recruitment friction.
• High home ownership: 70.1% owner-occupied; rental supply may be tight for incoming workers.
• Vacancy level: 13.6% of housing units are vacant, below the Louisiana rate of 14.4%, and down from 17.4% in 2019.
• Vacancy composition: the largest vacancy category is other vacant at 60.5% of vacant units, with seasonal and recreational use at 16.4%.
• Genuinely available supply: units listed for rent or for sale are 17.9% of the vacant stock, or 2.4% of all housing units against the 13.6% headline vacancy rate. Absorbable supply for an incoming employer is thin, and the gap between the two is the redevelopment and conversion opportunity.
• Affordable rent tiers: 2 of 5 HUD Fair Market Rent bedroom sizes sit below what a household on the median renter income of $28,875 can pay without cost burden (~$722/mo), and 42.9% of renter households are measured as cost-burdened.

• Succession risk is real: 22.9% of working-age residents are 55-64. Plan for retirements over the next decade and pair attraction strategy with talent retention.
• Low participation: 52.8% labor force participation. The labor force itself fell 1.4% between 2019 and 2024, from 33,356 to 32,898.
• Talent pipeline: 1 institution in St. Landry Parish awards 14 credentials a year. Employers drawing from a wider labor shed should read this alongside institutions outside the county, which this page does not aggregate.

St. Landry Parish shows strong potential for pipeline transportation attraction, with a 12.10x concentration and 97 jobs in this sub-sector. It ranks in the top decile nationally. Near-term succession risk is elevated, with 22.9% of the working-age population within 10 years of retirement age.

The concentrated base spans pipeline transportation, support activities for mining, and gasoline stations and fuel dealers, and no single source of demand accounts for more than 48.4% of the employment across them, the largest being resident household spending. Supply-chain recruitment has more than one demand base to work from.