Lake Charles is a larger medium-sized coastal city (i.e. on the ocean, a bay, or inlet) located in the state of Louisiana. With a population of 79,113 people and 37 associated neighborhoods, Lake Charles is the sixth largest community in Louisiana.Unlike some cities where white-collar or blue-collar occupations dominate the local economy, Lake Charles is neither predominantly one nor the other. Instead, it has a mixed workforce of both white- and blue-collar jobs. Overall, Lake Charles is a city of professionals, sales and office workers, and service providers. There are especially a lot of people living in Lake Charles who work in sales jobs (12.00%), office and administrative support (10.23%), and healthcare (9.28%). One of the nice things about Lake Charles is that it is nautical, which means that parts of it are somewhat historic and touch the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and bays. Because of this, visitors and locals will often go to these areas to take in the scenery or to enjoy waterfront activities. Compared to the rest of the country, citizens of Lake Charles spend much less time in their cars: on average, their commute to work is only 18.66 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.In terms of college education, Lake Charles is somewhat better educated than the 21.84% who have a 4-year degree or higher in the typical US community: 27.47% of adults 25 and older in the city have at least a bachelor's degree. The per capita income in Lake Charles in 2022 was $34,341, which is wealthy relative to Louisiana, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $137,364 for a family of four. However, Lake Charles contains both very wealthy and poor people as well. Lake Charles is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Lake Charles home describe themselves as belonging to a variety of racial and ethnic groups. The greatest number of Lake Charles residents report their race to be Black or African-American, followed by White. Important ancestries of people in Lake Charles include French, English, Irish, German, and French Canadian. The most common language spoken in Lake Charles is English. Other important languages spoken here include Spanish and French.
