Baton Rouge, LA
Baton Rouge, LA Metro Area
Figures are medians for the whole Baton Rouge, LA Metro Area, not the city proper.
Among the 300 U.S. metros CityLedger tracks, Baton Rouge ranks 192nd for affordability — how far a typical paycheck stretches after local prices — and 207th for income. A household earns $69,293 a year while median rent runs $1,138/mo, making it expensive relative to what residents earn. Affordability and price level are different lenses: the raw cost of living here runs 9% below the U.S. average.
Its strongest card is cost of living (64th of 300), while air quality is the soft spot (255th). Housing usually decides a move: rent ranks 109th and home prices 90th among the 300 metros CityLedger tracks.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you in Baton Rouge, your take-home is worth about $65,475 once local prices are factored in — local prices stretch it further than the U.S. average.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
The numbers
Income & cost
- Median income
- 207th of 300↑14.1%$69,293
- Cost of living?The local price level vs. the U.S. average of 100 (BEA). Lower means cheaper. This is raw prices, not adjusted for income.
- 64th of 30091 (US=100)
- Cost-adj. income?Median household income divided by the local price level — what the typical paycheck is really worth here.
- $76,331
- Per-capita income
- $37,556
- Full-time pay
- $42,348
Housing
- Median rent
- 109th of 300↑24.9%$1,138/mo
- Home value
- 90th of 300↑28.9%$252,000
- Property tax
- $1,406/yr · 0.6%
- Sales tax
- 10.12%
Jobs & education
- Unemployment
- 208th of 3005%
- Bachelor's+
- 192nd of 30030.9%
- Avg commute
- 234th of 30027.3 min
People
- Population
- 882,652
- Population change
- +3.2%
- Median age
- 36.5 yrs
- Foreign-born
- 5.2%
- Broadband
- 92.4%
Environment & risk
- Air quality (AQI)
- 255th of 30053
- Natural-hazard loss
- 250th of 300$22/$10k
Health
- Fair/poor health
- 235th of 30021.7%
- Uninsured (18–64)
- 8.3%
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau (ACS), U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. EPA, FEMA, CDC, NOAA — every figure's source is listed on our methodology page. Data built 2026-06-14. ↑↓ mark the change since 2019.
How CityLedger scores it
Transparent weights — see our methodology.
Strengths
- + Cost of living
- + Home prices
Watch-outs
- – Household income
- – Job market
- – Commute
- – Air quality
- – Hazard safety
- – Health
Climate
30-year normals (1991–2020) from the nearest station — baton rouge metro ap.
What jobs pay in Baton Rouge
Median annual wage by occupation (BLS OEWS 2025) — half of workers in each role earn more, half less.
- Family medicine physicians
- $315,620
- Pharmacists
- $134,680
- Financial managers
- $129,310
- IT managers
- $120,210
- Civil engineers
- $112,430
- General & operations managers
- $107,140
- Lawyers
- $102,070
- Software developers
- $101,900
- Web developers
- $89,350
- Registered nurses
- $81,130
- Plumbers
- $74,240
- Accountants & auditors
- $73,070
- Electricians
- $65,330
- Secondary school teachers
- $60,690
- Elementary school teachers
- $59,310
- Carpenters
- $55,630
- Truck drivers (heavy)
- $54,840
- Police officers
- $48,710
- Maintenance & repair workers
- $46,150
- Customer service reps
- $38,760
- Construction laborers
- $38,650
- Retail salespersons
- $30,070
- Janitors
- $28,690
- Cashiers
- $27,110
- Waiters & waitresses
- $15,080
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS 2025 — annual median wage. Cross-industry, all experience levels.
Where new residents move from
The states sending the most people to the Baton Rouge metro, by estimated movers (U.S. Census 2022 migration flows, 5-year). Moves from elsewhere in Louisiana are excluded to show where out-of-state arrivals originate.
- Texas2,714
- Mississippi1,222
- Tennessee1,156
- California1,011
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2022 Migration Flows (5-year).
Cities like Baton Rouge
Closest matches across cost, income, size, education, and age — tap to compare.
Baton Rouge metro — frequently asked
- What is the median rent in the Baton Rouge metro?
- Median gross rent across the Baton Rouge, LA Metro Area is $1,138 a month (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024). That figure covers the whole metro area, not just the city of Baton Rouge.
- What is the median household income in the Baton Rouge metro?
- A typical household in the Baton Rouge, LA Metro Area earns $69,293 a year (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- Is Baton Rouge expensive to live in?
- The overall cost of living in the Baton Rouge, LA Metro Area runs about 9% below the U.S. average (BEA Regional Price Parities, 2024) — prices are lower than average, before accounting for local pay.
- Does a paycheck go far in the Baton Rouge metro?
- After adjusting for local prices, the median household income is worth about $76,331 (versus its face value of $69,293). CityLedger rates the Baton Rouge, LA Metro Area expensive for what residents earn.
- What is the typical home value in the Baton Rouge metro?
- The median home value across the Baton Rouge, LA Metro Area is $252,000 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).
- What is the unemployment rate in the Baton Rouge metro?
- The unemployment rate in the Baton Rouge, LA Metro Area is 5% (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS 2024).