Lake Charles, LA vs Baton Rouge, LA
Side-by-side fiscal comparison · U.S. Census Bureau data (2023)
Summary
Baton Rouge spends 71.4% more per capita than Lake Charles ($31,334/person difference). Baton Rouge, LA has the stronger Fiscal Health Score (B, 75/100).
Fiscal Health Score
Key Metrics
Per Capita Spending by Department
Revenue Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Sales Tax | $38 | $488 |
| Income Tax | $0 | $2,296 |
| Intergovernmental | $10 | $949 |
| Charges & Fees | $1,751 | $0 |
| Other | $1,431 | $7,610 |
Spending Breakdown (Per Capita)
| Police | $0 | $1,820 |
| Fire Protection | $240 | $1,140 |
| Highways & Roads | $204 | $589 |
| Public Welfare | $543 | $2,691 |
| Health | $0 | $2,058 |
| Hospitals | $1,466 | $4,729 |
| Parks & Recreation | $737 | $758 |
| Housing | $2,714 | $7,045 |
| Sewerage | $0 | $236 |
| Utilities | $1,918 | $2,413 |
| Interest on Debt | $435 | $1,735 |
| General Admin | $0 | $4,492 |
| Other | $4,296 | $14,181 |
Compare More Cities
The side-by-side above pulls the the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances data for both entity A and entity B. What follows is the interpretation — which specific axes carry the most weight for entity A versus entity B, and which differences are large enough to influence a real decision.
Practical use of the comparison: read the data above, then drill into the individual entity A and entity B detail pages for the underlying breakdown. A pairwise comparison answers the relative question; the per-entity pages answer the absolute question.
Source: Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, 2026.