Where does Louisiana rank for food access among U.S. states?

Louisiana ranks #17 of 50 and sits in the upper third by population-weighted low-access (26.4%), per USDA FARA 2019.

What share of Louisiana has low food access?

26.4% of Louisiana residents live in low-access areas (population-weighted) (+4.3 pts vs U.S.), per USDA FARA 2019.

How many food deserts are in Louisiana?

258 census tracts in Louisiana are USDA food deserts (~483K low-income low-access residents); ~4.03 tracts per county.

What is the SNAP participation rate in Louisiana?

Across Louisiana, 17.3% of households receive SNAP (ACS 2024) (+5.2 pts vs U.S.) - high tercile among states.

Which county in Louisiana has the worst food access?

Tensas Parish has the highest low-access share at 58.9% (~0.3% of statewide low-access residents), with 31.8% SNAP.

Signature · 258 LILA tracts (4.03/county)

Food access in Louisiana

Louisiana sits in the upper third nationally on low-access (26.4%, +4.3 pts vs U.S.), with USDA FARA 2019 + ACS 2024 context for 64 counties.

Compiled by Plainfoodaccess, Food Access Editorial Process · December 31, 2024

26.4%
low-access pop.: 258
food-desert tracts: 17.3%
on SNAP: 64
counties

USDA FARA state access plate

State LA · Louisiana

LA-ELEVATED · ABOVE-NATIONAL · LILA-CLUSTER · SNAP-HEAVY · VEH-TYPICAL · BOOK-MID

LA-ELEVATED 26.4% low-access
ABOVE-NATIONAL +4.3 pts vs US
LILA-CLUSTER 258 food-desert tracts
SNAP-HEAVY 17.3% SNAP
VEH-TYPICAL 8.4% no vehicle
BOOK-MID 64 counties

Nearest low-access peer: Kansas (+ 0.0 pts)

Where Louisiana sits by county inventory

Louisiana covers 64 counties among 51 states and DC (atlas inventory, not a food-access quality ranking). Orthogonal to the low-access / SNAP charts below.

Louisiana vs all states by county count

Where this state's county inventory sits among every tracked jurisdiction

64 25th of 51 higher than 26 of 51 states

Jurisdictions, banded by county inventory

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count and share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source USDA Food Access Research Atlas / Census county inventory · 2026-06-23

Upper-band statewide picture

According to USDA FARA, Louisiana is in the upper third on low-access (26.4%, #17 of 50; ~1.2M residents) - +4.3 pts vs the U.S. mean.

#17
among states by low-access: 1.2M
low-access residents: 483K
food-desert residents: 8.4%
households, no vehicle

Population-weighted tract shares (not a county average). Upper-band states often pair elevated low-access with clustered LILA tracts.

Louisiana among higher low-access states

Louisiana ringed at #17 of 50 by population-weighted low-access. Click any state to compare.

USDA Economic Research Service, Food Access Research Atlas (2019), population-weighted · Census ACS 2024 context

Signature read: 258 LILA tracts (4.03/county) .

Louisiana sits in the upper third of states by population-weighted low-access share (26.4% , #17 of 50). The Atlas marks 258 food-desert tracts here (483K low-income low-access residents). Tensas Parish alone holds about 0.3% of the state's low-access residents.

States near Louisiana's elevated low-access or SNAP band

Two USDA/ACS-derived peer sets for Louisiana. Neighbourhood chart below is local poles; these panels are full-corpus nearest neighbours excluding this state.

Similar low-access share

Nearest population-weighted low-access rates (26.4% here).

Kansas · 26.4% low-access
Mississippi · 26.4% low-access
Hawaii · 26.7% low-access
Arizona · 26.8% low-access

Similar SNAP participation

Nearest household SNAP rates (17.3% here), deduped against the low-access panel.

West Virginia · 17.3% SNAP
Oregon · 16.0% SNAP
New York · 15.5% SNAP
New Mexico · 19.6% SNAP

Source: USDA Food Access Research Atlas (2019) + Census ACS 2024 SNAP. Floor county_count ≥ 5.

NM

31.7
AZ

26.8
HI

26.7
LA

26.4
KS

26.4
MS

26.4
DC

4.6

Tensas Parish

58.9
Beauregard Parish

55.8
Plaquemines Parish

54.9
Vernon Parish

49.3
St. Charles Parish

47.2
Ascension Parish

42.3
Rapides Parish

40.6
St. John the Baptist Parish

39.6

All counties in Louisiana

County	Population	Low-access	SNAP	No vehicle	Poverty
Tensas Parish	4K	58.9%	31.8%	9.5%	34.4%
Beauregard Parish	37K	55.8%	17.5%	5.0%	14.3%
Plaquemines Parish	23K	54.9%	14.8%	1.9%	12.9%
Vernon Parish	47K	49.3%	14.6%	6.2%	19.0%
St. Charles Parish	51K	47.2%	10.3%	2.5%	11.7%
Ascension Parish	130K	42.3%	12.2%	4.7%	10.3%
Rapides Parish	128K	40.6%	19.1%	9.4%	19.9%
St. John the Baptist Parish	41K	39.6%	20.2%	5.2%	14.4%
Tangipahoa Parish	137K	38.8%	21.2%	6.1%	19.2%
West Feliciana Parish	15K	38.1%	14.2%	5.1%	11.8%
Concordia Parish	18K	36.8%	26.9%	10.4%	31.8%
Union Parish	21K	36.6%	20.4%	7.3%	29.4%
Bienville Parish	13K	35.6%	22.9%	9.8%	29.2%
St. Bernard Parish	44K	35.6%	25.1%	8.2%	23.0%
Catahoula Parish	9K	35.3%	19.3%	10.2%	24.3%
Caddo Parish	230K	34.8%	21.6%	9.9%	22.4%
Calcasieu Parish	207K	34.1%	15.7%	7.2%	17.4%
Lincoln Parish	48K	34.1%	23.9%	9.5%	31.2%
East Carroll Parish	7K	33.6%	29.6%	9.2%	35.2%
Ouachita Parish	158K	33.1%	19.8%	8.6%	23.2%
St. Tammany Parish	272K	32.8%	9.0%	4.3%	11.4%
Pointe Coupee Parish	20K	29.2%	12.0%	7.7%	16.5%
East Baton Rouge Parish	453K	28.8%	15.9%	8.1%	19.6%
Webster Parish	36K	28.5%	27.0%	10.3%	23.1%
Allen Parish	22K	28.1%	26.5%	7.9%	23.1%
Livingston Parish	148K	28.1%	13.0%	3.8%	12.9%
Natchitoches Parish	37K	27.9%	19.5%	9.3%	25.4%
Sabine Parish	22K	27.7%	22.0%	10.2%	23.7%
Lafayette Parish	248K	27.4%	12.5%	6.6%	17.1%
De Soto Parish	27K	27.0%	20.1%	8.9%	21.5%
Lafourche Parish	96K	26.8%	17.0%	6.9%	17.0%
Terrebonne Parish	106K	26.3%	16.3%	6.9%	16.0%
Franklin Parish	19K	25.9%	24.5%	8.0%	24.1%
Bossier Parish	130K	25.8%	10.6%	7.3%	15.9%
Cameron Parish	5K	25.6%	8.6%	2.7%	7.4%
St. James Parish	20K	23.6%	14.1%	5.6%	11.1%
St. Mary Parish	48K	23.0%	22.8%	11.3%	20.8%
Morehouse Parish	25K	22.9%	30.0%	11.6%	29.3%
LaSalle Parish	15K	22.6%	16.7%	6.7%	16.0%
Jackson Parish	15K	20.9%	15.2%	10.1%	22.3%
Avoyelles Parish	39K	20.5%	27.9%	9.8%	27.8%
St. Landry Parish	82K	19.7%	21.7%	9.9%	26.8%
Grant Parish	22K	19.5%	18.5%	6.9%	17.0%
West Baton Rouge Parish	28K	18.9%	12.4%	5.4%	12.9%
Orleans Parish	372K	17.6%	18.5%	17.4%	22.6%
Claiborne Parish	14K	17.3%	33.8%	14.2%	32.0%
Jefferson Davis Parish	32K	15.6%	20.3%	5.5%	14.6%
Iberia Parish	69K	15.5%	23.8%	12.0%	22.8%
Winn Parish	13K	15.5%	18.4%	8.6%	24.3%
St. Martin Parish	51K	14.7%	20.4%	9.4%	15.3%
Jefferson Parish	431K	13.2%	14.1%	7.4%	16.6%
Richland Parish	20K	12.0%	24.6%	8.7%	24.0%
Red River Parish	7K	11.9%	25.0%	8.0%	25.8%
Evangeline Parish	32K	9.5%	31.2%	11.6%	24.3%
Vermilion Parish	57K	9.0%	17.9%	9.8%	20.2%
Washington Parish	45K	8.4%	28.2%	11.5%	24.3%
Caldwell Parish	10K	7.9%	23.5%	8.3%	29.8%
Acadia Parish	57K	6.6%	24.4%	10.5%	25.0%
St. Helena Parish	11K	6.0%	30.7%	10.4%	32.4%
Madison Parish	10K	5.7%	30.4%	14.0%	34.5%
Iberville Parish	30K	5.2%	21.1%	6.4%	19.9%
West Carroll Parish	9K	4.7%	23.0%	5.9%	16.2%
East Feliciana Parish	19K	1.5%	14.5%	5.5%	16.2%
Assumption Parish	20K	0.9%	19.9%	9.0%	15.3%

Source: USDA ERS Food Access Research Atlas (2019) + U.S. Census Bureau ACS (2024 5-year). Sorted by low-access share, highest first.

Figures from USDA Food Access Research Atlas (2019) and Census ACS 2024 5-year. Compiled 2026-06-23. Methodology · All states.

PlainFoodAccess renders this state summary directly from the USDA Food Access Research Atlas (2019) and U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates), no number is typed in by an editor. Statewide figures for Louisiana are population-weighted aggregates of county Atlas and ACS records. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-06-23. Primary sources: USDA Food Access Research Atlas and Census ACS 5-year estimates.