The unfortunate fact of the matter is that some places in the Pelican State have a larger percent of their population that never graduated from high school.
While the emphasis on going to college might be overblown, the fact is that not graduating from high school puts you at a significant disadvantage on average. Educational attainment might not be the best way to measure one person’s intelligence, but it does shine a light on the state.
We will use Saturday Night Science to determine what places in Louisiana have the highest percentage of adults without a high school degree.
A recent study we published found that Louisiana is the 49th smartest state in the United States, with an average IQ of 95.
But that doesn’t mean that a few cities in Louisiana are a bit slower than others due to a lack of basic education.
Table Of Contents: Top Ten | Methodology | Summary | Table
Don’t freak out.
Some places are just smarter than others, but that says nothing about the character of the people living there. It’s another data point a real estate agent would never tell you.
For this ranking, we only looked at cities with populations greater than 5,000, leaving us 57 cities in Louisiana to rank. You can take a look at the data below.
For more Louisiana reading, check out:
The 10 Dumbest Places In Louisiana For 2025
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% Adult High School Dropout: 35.0%
% Highly Educated: 10.0%
More on Ville Platte: Data
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% Adult High School Dropout: 24.0%
% Highly Educated: 9.0%
More on Abbeville: Data
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% Adult High School Dropout: 24.0%
% Highly Educated: 11.0%
More on Tallulah: Data
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% Adult High School Dropout: 18.0%
% Highly Educated: 7.0%
More on Patterson: Data
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% Adult High School Dropout: 21.0%
% Highly Educated: 11.0%
More on Opelousas: Data
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% Adult High School Dropout: 21.0%
% Highly Educated: 15.0%
More on Jennings: Data
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Methodology: How we determined the dumbest cities in the Pelican State
We realize that formal education is only part of it when it comes to being intelligent, but on the other hand, knowing the difference between they’re, their, and there is always going to make you look pretty stupid.
So, we used Saturday Night Science to narrow down our criteria to focus on a city’s educational opportunities and what percentage of the population takes advantage of those opportunities.
In short, we came up with these criteria to determine the dumbest cities in Louisiana:
- % of the city’s population with less than a high school education (Age 25+)
- % of city’s population with a college degree (Age 25+)
We got the data from the U.S. Census 2019-2023 American Community Survey.
Then, our algorithm generates a rank for each place in these categories. After crunching all the numbers, a ranking of the cities in Louisiana from dumbest to brightest.
For this ranking, we used every Louisiana city with at least 5,000 residents. We updated this article for 2025, and it’s our tenth time ranking the dumbest cities in Louisiana.
There You Have It – Now That You’re Asleep
If you’re measuring the locations in Louisiana where there are a high number of dropouts and adults who never received a formal education, this is an accurate ranking.
The dumbest cities in Louisiana are Ville Platte, Abbeville, Oakdale, Rayne, Tallulah, Bastrop, Patterson, Opelousas, Jennings, and Eunice.
If you’re also curious enough, here are the smartest places in Louisiana, according to science:
- Mandeville
- Ruston
- Harahan
For more Louisiana reading, check out:
- Best Places To Live In Louisiana
- Cheapest Places To Live In Louisiana
- Most Dangerous Places In Louisiana
- Richest Cities In Louisiana
- Safest Places In Louisiana
- Worst Places To Live In Louisiana
- Most Expensive Places To Live In Louisiana
Dumbest Cities In Louisiana For 2025
| Rank | City | Population | % Adult High School Dropout | % Highly Educated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ville Platte, LA | 6,299 | 35.0% | 10.0% |
| 2 | Abbeville, LA | 11,086 | 24.0% | 9.0% |
| 3 | Oakdale, LA | 6,614 | 25.0% | 10.0% |
| 4 | Rayne, LA | 7,147 | 23.0% | 6.0% |
| 5 | Tallulah, LA | 6,124 | 24.0% | 11.0% |
| 6 | Bastrop, LA | 9,408 | 19.0% | 5.0% |
| 7 | Patterson, LA | 5,801 | 18.0% | 7.0% |
| 8 | Opelousas, LA | 15,662 | 21.0% | 11.0% |
| 9 | Jennings, LA | 9,679 | 21.0% | 15.0% |
| 10 | Eunice, LA | 9,261 | 23.0% | 16.0% |
| 11 | Franklin, LA | 6,557 | 17.0% | 10.0% |
| 12 | St. Martinville, LA | 5,367 | 20.0% | 15.0% |
| 13 | Crowley, LA | 11,554 | 24.0% | 19.0% |
| 14 | Plaquemine, LA | 6,136 | 19.0% | 16.0% |
| 15 | Bogalusa, LA | 10,539 | 16.0% | 14.0% |
| 16 | Westwego, LA | 8,382 | 21.0% | 18.0% |
| 17 | Breaux Bridge, LA | 7,497 | 21.0% | 19.0% |
| 18 | New Iberia, LA | 27,926 | 17.0% | 17.0% |
| 19 | Gretna, LA | 17,468 | 24.0% | 26.0% |
| 20 | St. Gabriel, LA | 6,569 | 21.0% | 23.0% |
| 21 | Donaldsonville, LA | 6,792 | 13.0% | 11.0% |
| 22 | Leesville, LA | 5,610 | 15.0% | 19.0% |
| 23 | Minden, LA | 11,604 | 14.0% | 16.0% |
| 24 | Scott, LA | 8,348 | 15.0% | 18.0% |
| 25 | Sulphur, LA | 21,004 | 14.0% | 17.0% |
| 26 | Carencro, LA | 10,882 | 12.0% | 16.0% |
| 27 | Houma, LA | 32,760 | 14.0% | 22.0% |
| 28 | Alexandria, LA | 44,566 | 15.0% | 24.0% |
| 29 | Kenner, LA | 65,113 | 15.0% | 29.0% |
| 30 | Ponchatoula, LA | 7,839 | 13.0% | 22.0% |
| 31 | West Monroe, LA | 12,837 | 14.0% | 23.0% |
| 32 | Baker, LA | 12,322 | 12.0% | 20.0% |
| 33 | Hammond, LA | 20,790 | 15.0% | 30.0% |
| 34 | Monroe, LA | 47,241 | 15.0% | 29.0% |
| 35 | Pineville, LA | 14,268 | 14.0% | 25.0% |
| 36 | Gonzales, LA | 12,748 | 14.0% | 26.0% |
| 37 | Deridder, LA | 9,812 | 12.0% | 22.0% |
| 38 | Walker, LA | 6,385 | 8.0% | 22.0% |
| 39 | Shreveport, LA | 183,483 | 12.0% | 28.0% |
| 40 | Lake Charles, LA | 81,679 | 11.0% | 29.0% |
| 41 | Thibodaux, LA | 15,792 | 13.0% | 37.0% |
| 42 | Denham Springs, LA | 9,362 | 6.0% | 23.0% |
| 43 | Grambling, LA | 5,302 | 11.0% | 31.0% |
| 44 | Natchitoches, LA | 17,682 | 10.0% | 30.0% |
| 45 | Baton Rouge, LA | 223,699 | 12.0% | 37.0% |
| 46 | Slidell, LA | 28,664 | 10.0% | 31.0% |
| 47 | Broussard, LA | 13,791 | 10.0% | 40.0% |
| 48 | Covington, LA | 11,568 | 9.0% | 37.0% |
| 49 | Addis, LA | 7,052 | 6.0% | 32.0% |
| 50 | New Orleans, LA | 376,035 | 10.0% | 43.0% |
| 51 | Lafayette, LA | 121,537 | 9.0% | 41.0% |
| 52 | Central, LA | 29,603 | 4.0% | 32.0% |
| 53 | Youngsville, LA | 16,664 | 5.0% | 37.0% |
| 54 | Zachary, LA | 19,637 | 6.0% | 39.0% |
| 55 | Harahan, LA | 8,939 | 7.0% | 41.0% |
| 56 | Ruston, LA | 22,224 | 7.0% | 43.0% |
| 57 | Mandeville, LA | 12,931 | 5.0% | 47.0% |
First of all Crowley has over 54000 people living in it where did you get your statistics what age groups did you use people in Crowley a living to be in there nineties where most of them had to do to do minimal labor because they couldn’t afford to go to college because you had to have money to go there so how can the SATs scores include the rice farmers the crawfish farmers they never have to go to college to learn how to work in the rice industry
Crowley does not have 54,000 people, we have less than 20,000.