Lake Charles is a larger medium-sized coastal city (ie. on the ocean or tidally-influenced rivers) located in the state of Louisiana. With a population of 71,519 people and 23 constituent neighborhoods, Lake Charles is the sixth largest community in Louisiana.

Lake Charles is neither predominently blue-collar or white-collar, instead having a mixed workforce of both blue-collar and white-collar jobs. Overall, Lake Charles is a city of sales and office workers, service providers, and professionals. There are especially a lot of people living in Lake Charles who work in office and administrative support jobs (14.58%), sales jobs (12.11%), and food service (7.97%).

The city is also nautical, which means that parts of Lake Charles are somewhat historic and bounded by the ocean or tidal bodies of water, such as inlets and tidal rivers. Such areas are often places that visitors and locals go for waterfront activities or taking in the scenery.

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 16.93 minutes. This also means that noise and pollution levels in the city are less than they would otherwise be.

Lake Charles Information and Demographics

The percentage of people in Lake Charles who are college-educated is somewhat higher than the average US community of 14.96%: 20.18% of adults in Lake Charles have at least a bachelor's degree.

The per capita income in Lake Charles in 2000 was $17,922, which is upper middle income relative to Louisiana, and middle income relative to the rest of the US. This equates to an annual income of $71,688 for a family of four.

Lake Charles is an extremely ethnically-diverse city. The people who call Lake Charles home come from a variety of different races and ancestries. The most prevalent race in Lake Charles is White, followed by African-American. Important ancestries of people in Lake Charles include French, English, French Canadian, German, and Irish.

The most common language spoken in Lake Charles is English. Some people also speak French.