Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A town of 9,235, settled in 1880.
Jennings gives you more for your money than most places: homes are within reach, about $140K for a typical one, or 2.1 years of the Lake Charles metro’s $67K median household income. It grades C− overall, 94th of 161 graded towns in Louisiana. The low prices come with trade-offs. It reports more crime per resident than 97% of U.S. towns, including 87 violent crimes reported to the FBI in 2025, and CDC estimates put its residents' health behind 97% of the country. On the plus side, its schools outperform 85% of the state's. Jennings’ violent crime rate is 9.5 per 1,000 residents, against 4.3 in Louisiana’s towns and 1.6 across U.S. towns. Jennings has 13 places on the National Register of Historic Places, among them Jennings Carnegie Public Library and Jennings Post Office. FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 86% of U.S. communities, with hurricanes at the top.
Where Jennings beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Jennings Elementary School | PK–6 | 976 |
| Our Lady Immaculate School | PK–8 | 207 |
| Jennings High School | 7–12 | 775 |
Census counts: 412 in 1890, 9,837 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1880 and 6 maps from 1946 on.
13 places on the National Register of Historic Places.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Louisiana), ordered by how far Jennings is from typical.
Its grades run from A for cost of living (better than 88% of comparable towns) to D− for safety (better than 3%), so the C− overall blends very different results.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Who provides power, water and the rest in Jennings, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Aug 3, 2026.
Ordered by what stands out in Jennings.
Jennings pairs an A for schools with modest home prices and trades lower home prices for longer drives to work, but it reports violent crime at about twice the Louisiana rate.
Violent crime runs at 9.5 per 1,000 residents, about twice the Louisiana rate; the Safety Grade counts each violent crime four times, so this weighs most on its D−. Reported crimes fell from 559 to 349 over the last three FBI years, a drop beyond ordinary year-to-year swings.
Jennings’ property crime rate is 28.6 per 1,000 residents. Jennings reports more crime per resident than most U.S. towns we grade: about 97% report less. Within Louisiana, it does better than 31% of towns.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Its A for schools comes with an A for cost of living: the typical home is worth about $140K.
Its public schools are run by the Jefferson Davis Parish school district. Two of its 3 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Jennings High School, with 775 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jennings Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–6 | Grades PK–6 | 976 | C+ |
| Jennings High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 7–12 | Grades 7–12 | 775 | B− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within LA on state tests and graduation
Within Louisiana it is less healthy than 69% of the 161 graded towns: much of Louisiana scores lower on these measures.
18% of Jennings adults report frequent physical distress. Jennings beats the Louisiana average on 0 of 32 CDC measures and trails it on 9. 46% of Jennings adults have high blood pressure.
| Jennings | Louisiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent physical distress (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 16% | 14% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 46% | 44% | 35% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 37% | 34% | 25% |
| Fair or poor health (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 27% | 19% |
| What stands out | Jennings | LA |
|---|---|---|
| More adults with COPD | 11.1% | 8.5% |
| More adults with heart disease | 9.3% | 7.5% |
| More adults who have had a stroke | 5.3% | 4.3% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
5.7 miles of trail in 3 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Oil and Gas Park, at 33 acres.
| Jennings | Louisiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.5 miles per square mile | 0.2 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 1.4% | 1.2% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Oil and Gas Park | — | 33 |
| 2. Peters Street Playground | — | 10 |
| 3. North Cutting Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Since 1980, 23 flood insurance claims have been paid out in Jennings.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Homes are within reach (about $140K for the typical one, A for cost of living), but half of working residents commute more than 33 miles. At 2.1 years of the Lake Charles metro’s $67K median household income, the typical home (about $140K) costs less against local pay than in 86% of Louisiana towns; that ratio is one input to its A for cost of living.
The typical Jennings home is worth about $140,000, up 3.7% in a year, 35% below the Louisiana typical home. The median rent in Jennings is $881 a month.
| Jennings | Louisiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 64% | 68% | 73% |
| Median rent | $881 a month | $992 a month | $1,185 a month |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
January nights average 42.3°, milder than in 95% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 91.6°. The Jennings weather station records that about 73 days a year reach 90°: more than most of the country, but fewer than 88% of Louisiana places with climate records.
Jennings has warm winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. Snow is almost unheard of.
| Jennings | Louisiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 42°F | 42°F | 22°F |
| July high | 92°F | 92°F | 85°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
About one in 3 of Jennings’s working residents works in town. Jobs based in Jennings fell to 4,505 in 2023, 957 fewer than in 2013. 19% of residents live below the poverty line in Jennings.
| Jennings | Louisiana towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 29% | 9.8% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 31 minutes | 24 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Below the poverty line | 19% | 20% | 9.6% |
| Median household income | $49,000 | $56,000 | $80,000 |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
None within 15 miles of Jennings; the nearest are
About 2 of every 100 Jennings residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Louisiana.
13 places in Jennings on the National Register of Historic Places.
16 notable people were born in Jennings.
City in Louisiana, United States
Jennings is a city in and the parish seat of Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana, United States, near Lake Charles. As of the 2020 census, Jennings had a population of 9,837. Jennings is the principal city of the Jennings Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Jefferson Davis Parish. It is also part of the larger Lake Charles-Jennings Combined Statistical Area. It is also part of the large, 22-parish Acadiana region of the state, with a large Francophone population, many descended from early Acadian settlers.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Jennings grades C− overall, better than 23% of U.S. towns and #94 of 161 in Louisiana. It grades D− for health, D− for safety and A for schools. Safety is its weak spot, with a D−.
Within Louisiana, it does better than 31% of towns.
Not for the area. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades A.
16 notable people were born here, including Travis Etienne and Dick Winslow.
