Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
La Porte is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades C overall, ranked 300th of 640 in Texas, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $81K. Expect to pay for it: the typical home is worth about $255K, 3.1 years of the Houston metro’s $82K median household income. On hazard risk, just 96 of Texas’ 1,000 towns do worse. Sylvan Beach Pavilion is on the National Register of Historic Places. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 72% of U.S. towns.
Where La Porte beats most towns.
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Texas), ordered by how far La Porte is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Census counts: 537 in 1900, 35,124 in 2020. The archive holds 12 old photos and papers going back to 1969 and 7 maps from 1916 on.
1 place on the National Register of Historic Places.
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around La Porte. Close and well known come first.
Big draw19 mi Stadium & arenaDaikin Park
Big draw22 mi Stadium & arenaReliant Stadium
6 mi LandmarkSan Jacinto Monument
20 mi Stadium & arenaToyota Center
21 mi MuseumRothko Chapel
9 mi MuseumSpace Center HoustonDaikin Park: Delaywaves, CC BY 3.0 · Reliant Stadium: User eschipul on Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0 · San Jacinto Monument: Tijuana Brass at English Wikipedia, Public domain · Toyota Center: Ed Uthman from Houston, TX, USA, CC BY 2.0 · Rothko Chapel: Unknown, Public domain · Space Center Houston: Shujianyang, CC BY 4.0
Who provides power, water and the rest in La Porte, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
Ordered by what stands out in La Porte.
La Porte fares better on crime within Texas than nationally and has milder winter nights than nearly all U.S. towns, but it carries more natural-hazard risk than most of Texas (mostly inland flooding).
13 miles of trail in 8 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Little Cedar Bayou Park, at 36 acres. La Porte’s trail density is 0.6 miles per square mile, against 0.3 in Texas’ towns and 0.4 across U.S. towns.
| La Porte | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.6 miles per square mile | 0.3 | 0.4 |
| Conserved land | 2% | 1.9% | 4.3% |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Pecan Park | 1.4 mi | 33 |
| 2. Fairmont Park | 0.7 mi | 20 |
| 3. Little Cedar Bayou Park | 0.5 mi | 36 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Its public schools are run by La Porte ISD. Three of its 12 schools are below, each with why it’s listed.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| La Porte J HLargest public middle schoolGrades 7–8 | Grades 7–8 | 563 | B |
| La Porte H SLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 2,090 | B− |
| Leo A Rizzuto ElTop results in townGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 299 | A |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within TX on state tests and graduation
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 92% of Texas towns, with expected losses of about $416 per resident a year; that rating is what its C− for hazard risk is built on. 2,498 flood insurance claims have been filed here, and 345 properties have flooded more than once.
La Porte’s FEMA risk score is 78 of 100, above both the Texas town median (47 of 100) and the median of U.S. towns (44 of 100). Since 1979, 2,498 flood insurance claims have been paid out in La Porte.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
January nights average 45°, milder than in 97% of U.S. towns; July afternoons average 91.2°.
La Porte has warm winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. La Porte’s January low is 45°F. Snow is almost unheard of.
| La Porte | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| January low | 45°F | 37°F | 22°F |
| July high | 91°F | 95°F | 85°F |
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Most working residents leave La Porte for work: only 10% work in town. Since 2013, La Porte has added 4,298 jobs, to 21,757 in 2023. The top destinations are Houston (30%), Pasadena (11%) and Deer Park (8%).
| La Porte | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Work from home | 8.1% | 9.7% | 11% |
| Median household income | $81,000 | $69,000 | $80,000 |
| Working residents who work in town | 10% | 8.3% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 12% | 12% | 9.6% |
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
The typical La Porte home is worth about $255,000, up 0.7% in a year, 14% below the Texas typical home. The median rent in La Porte is $1,378 a month.
| La Porte | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median rent | $1,378 a month | $1,206 a month | $1,185 a month |
| Households that own their home | 71% | 69% | 73% |
Census ACS, 2020–24 · Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
At 16.1 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports less crime than 70% of Texas’s graded towns. Violent crime is rare: 52 reported in 2025, 1.3 per 1,000 residents.
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
La Porte beats the Texas average on 0 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 2. 19% of La Porte adults 18 to 64 have no health insurance.
| La Porte | Texas towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 19% | 18% | 8.1% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 73% | 74% | 79% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 18% | 17% | 16% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 33% | 35% | 35% |
| What stands out | La Porte | TX |
|---|---|---|
| More adults who have had cancer | 6.9% | 6.1% |
| More adults with COPD | 6.4% | 5.7% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
5 within 15 miles of the center of La Porte
About 6 of every 100 La Porte residents are enrolled in college, about the same as Texas.
4 notable people were born in La Porte.
City in Texas, United States
La Porte ( lə PORT) is a city in Harris County, Texas, United States, within the Bay Area of the Houston–Sugar Land–Baytown metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 35,124. La Porte is the fourth-largest incorporated city in Harris County. When La Porte celebrated its centennial in 1992, it was the home of Barbours Cut Terminal, operated by the Port of Houston Authority since 1977. Fifteen years later, the Port of Houston's newest addition, Bayport Terminal, was established just south of La Porte. The area around La Porte has served an increasingly important role in international trade since the 1970s. The area around modern La Porte gained fame early in Texas histo…
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
4 towns share a border with La Porte.
| Town | TX rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Porte | #300 | C | C | B | B− | B− |
| Morgan's Point | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| Pasadena | #562 | D | C+ | D | C | C− |
| Deer Park | #158 | B− | C | B− | B | B+ |
| Shoreacres | — | — | C+ | — | B− | B+ |
Shoreacres has fewer than 2,500 residents, so it gets subject grades but no overall grade. Shoreacres reports no FBI crime data of its own. Morgan's Point isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare La Porte with a neighbor →
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
La Porte grades C overall, better than 31% of U.S. towns and #300 of 640 in Texas. It grades B− for health, B for safety and B− for schools. Hazard risk is its weak spot, with a C−.
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C.
4 notable people were born here, including Gene Washington and Terrel Bernard.
