Baton Rouge ranks as one of the best and worst places to live in Louisiana, according to a recent study by the American Human Development Project.
The study ranked areas of southern East Baton Rouge parish and West Baton Rouge parish as the best area and north Baton Rouge and parts of the downtown area as the worst.
The study was based the findings on the American Human Development Index, which studies the “health, knowledge and standard of living,” according to the American Human Development Project website.
The index rates areas using a scale from one to 10 based on these factors. The southern area of East Baton Rouge and West Baton Rouge ranked 5.73 on the scale.
The results are somewhat unsurprising, according to Jordan Johnson, broker at local real estate agency Beau Box Inc.
“Driving down the street, you can tell where the good places to live are,” Johnson said.
But while there are many developing areas in West Baton Rouge parish, the required commute could be a deterrent to living in the area, Johnson said.
North Baton Rouge and the downtown area ranked 2.51 on the index.
The downtown area could rank low because there are still few places to live, Johnson said, though they are increasing.
A person living in the highest-ranking areas “can expect to live, on average, nearly half a decade longer” and earn twice as much, according to the study.
Louisiana’s total score was 4.07. Only West Virginia, Arkansas and Mississippi ranked below Louisiana.
Connecticut earned the highest state ranking on the index at 6.30.
The American Human Development Index is described as a “composite measure of well being and opportunity,” according to the AHDP website.
Developers studied life expectancy at birth, educational degree attainment, school enrollment and median earnings of all areas surveyed.
To calculate life expectancy, researchers used mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Center for Health Statistics, according to the AHDP website.
Access to knowledge and median earnings used data from the American Community Survey and the U.S. Census Bureau.
 
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Contact Grace Montgomery at [email protected]