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ZIP Code71280

Sterlington, LA

Ouachita Parish · Louisiana · United States
Home to 4,999 people across 59.448 square miles.

Central17 ZIPs in county

At a glance

71280 by the numbers

Every figure below comes from the 2019–2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, the Census Gazetteer, or is computed from those. Margins of error are shown where they matter.

Population
4,999
±937 · 61th pctile nationally
Median household income
$75,768
US median $70,109 · 59th pctile
Median home value
$260,000
US median $207,500 · 64th pctile
Median age
39.6
US median 42 years
Population density
84/mi²
51th pctile most dense
Land area
59.448 mi²
plus 2.907 mi² water

Location

Where 71280 is

32.717701, -92.101204 · Census ZCTA internal pointOpen larger map →
Coordinates32.717701, -92.101204
Time zoneAmerica/Chicago
CountyOuachita Parish
StateLouisiana (LA)
Land area59.448 mi²
Coordinate sourceCensus ZCTA internal point

Local time

America/Chicago

—:—:—

Current weather

Live from the National Weather Service

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Distance to major cities

Straight-line, computed from coordinates

Dallas, TX272.9 mi
Houston, TX281.1 mi
San Antonio, TX441.3 mi
Atlanta, GA451.3 mi

People

Who lives in 71280

4,999 residents in 1,981 households, averaging 2.52 people per household. The largest age group is under 18 at 24.7% of residents, and 74.1% of households are families.

Age distribution

Share of residents by age band

Under 1824.7%
18-248.4%
25-3411.4%
35-4414.3%
45-5410.5%
55-6410.1%
65+20.6%

Households

Composition and size

Total households1,981
Average household size2.52
Family households74.1%
Living alone24.6%
Median age39.6 years
Households with internet80.3%

Race & ethnicity

Census race categories. Hispanic or Latino origin is asked separately and overlaps these groups.

White74.1%
Black22.0%
Asian0.2%
Native American0.0%
Other2.9%
Two or more0.8%
Hispanic / Latino3.9%

Income & work

What people earn in 71280

The median household here earns $75,768 a year, above the US median of $70,109, which puts 71280 ahead of 59% of American ZIP codes. 17.2% of residents live below the poverty line.

Compared to the US

This ZIP against the national median

Median household income$75,768
LowestHighest
Higher than 59% of all US ZIP codes.
Median household income$75,768 ±$9,906
Per capita income$43,945
Poverty rate17.2%
Unemployment rate2.2%
Labor force participation66.6%

Household income distribution

Share of households in each bracket

<$25k19.1%
$25-50k17.1%
$50-75k12.5%
$75-100k16.8%
$100-150k16.4%
$150-200k9.6%
$200k+8.5%

Educational attainment among residents 25 and older: 24.6% hold a bachelor's degree or higher, 88.5% finished high school.

Housing

Homes and rent in 71280

A typical home is valued at $260,000, and median rent runs $1,043 a month. This is an owner-majority area — 71.8% of occupied homes are owned, and the typical building went up in 2000.

Costs

Typical values

Median home value$260,000
Median gross rent$1,043/mo
Median year built2000
Housing units2,280
Vacancy rate13.1%

Own vs. rent

Of 1,981 occupied units

Owner-occupied71.8%
Renter-occupied28.2%
Owner households1,422
Renter households559

Building types

Units by structure size

Single family65.7%
2-4 units13.0%
5-19 units3.6%
20+ units17.7%

Getting to work

How 71280 commutes

87.0% of workers drove alone, and the average one-way trip takes 27.5 minutes.

Mode of transport

Workers 16 and older

Drove alone87.0%
Carpooled5.7%
Walked0.4%
Bike0.8%
Worked from home4.8%

Travel time

Mean commute 27.5 minutes

<10 min14.0%
10-1920.3%
20-2921.9%
30-4435.5%
45-593.8%
60+4.5%

Overview

Understanding ZIP code 71280

ZIP code 71280 is assigned to Sterlington, LA, and falls within Ouachita Parish. Like every US postal code, it began as a mail-routing device rather than a geographic boundary — the US Postal Service groups delivery routes under a single code so carriers and sorting equipment can process mail efficiently. Today it also serves as a practical shorthand for the area itself: roughly 4,999 people live inside it.

At 84 residents per square mile spread over 59.448 square miles, 71280 reads as a rural area. It is a smaller postal code by population, and density shapes almost everything else on this page — how people get to work, whether they own or rent, and what housing costs.

Household earnings track close to the national picture. The median of $75,768 puts 71280 near the middle of the pack, ahead of 59% of them. The US median for comparison is $70,109. Bear in mind that median income describes the midpoint household, not the average — it is not pulled upward by a handful of very high earners the way a mean would be.

Living here

What life in Sterlington looks like

Housing in 71280 costs close to the national median. A typical home is valued at $260,000 against a US median of $207,500, and median gross rent runs $1,043 a month. Ownership dominates: 71.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied, which usually signals an established residential area with relatively low turnover.

The building stock is dominated by detached single-family houses, which account for 65.7% of housing units here. The median construction year is 2000, making the housing here relatively modern.

The population skews broadly in line with the national age profile, with a median age of 39.6 against 42 nationally. The average household holds 2.52 people, and 74.1% are family households.

Getting to work takes 27.5 minutes on average one way. The dominant mode is drove alone at 87.0% of workers.

Where to stay

Where to stay in Sterlington, LA

71280 covers a rural area, and accommodation within the postal code itself is likely to be sparse — perhaps a country inn, a lodge or a vacation rental rather than a conventional hotel. Widening the search radius is usually the practical approach, and it also opens up more availability at short notice.

Median rent in 71280 is $1,043 a month, which sits in the middle of the national range; accommodation pricing locally tends to be similarly mid-market. For reference, Dallas, TX is about 272.9 miles away in a straight line, which is worth factoring in if you are comparing a stay here against one closer to the city centre.

Availability and pricing change constantly, so the live search below will give you a more accurate picture than any figure we could publish here. It opens results for this area on Booking.com.

Book a Hotel →

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Practical uses

What ZIP code 71280 is used for

Beyond addressing mail, 71280 does a lot of quiet administrative work. Retailers use it to calculate shipping and sales tax at checkout. Insurers use it to set premiums, since risk profiles vary geographically. Employers and marketers use it to define service areas. Government agencies use it to route benefits and organise reporting. If you have ever been asked for a postal code by a form that clearly does not intend to send you anything, this is why.

For anyone weighing a move, 71280 offers a compact profile of Sterlington: 4,999 residents, a median household income of $75,768, 24.6% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher, and an unemployment rate of 2.2%. A handful of figures like these answer more relocation questions than most neighbourhood guides do.

One caution worth repeating: a postal code is not a neighbourhood. 71280 may cover parts of several distinct areas, and a single neighbourhood in Sterlington may be split across more than one code. Boundaries also shift as USPS adjusts delivery routes. Treat the figures here as describing a delivery area, which is what they actually measure.

Nearby

ZIP codes near 71280

The eight closest postal codes by centroid distance, each with its own full profile. You can also browse every Louisiana ZIP code or use the ZIP Express Lookup to search by city, county or time zone.

71240Fairbanks6.3 mi away71203Monroe10.5 mi away71291West Monroe11.3 mi away71201Monroe12.3 mi away71209Monroe13.0 mi away71229Collinston13.3 mi away71212Monroe13.3 mi away71221Bastrop13.6 mi away

More in Ouachita Parish

712017120271203712077120971210712117121271213712177122571240

Look up another

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Questions

Common questions about 71280

What city is ZIP code 71280 in?
71280 serves Sterlington, Louisiana, in Ouachita Parish, United States.
What is the population of 71280?
About 4,999 people live in ZIP code 71280, according to the US Census Bureau's 2019–2023 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates. The margin of error on that figure is ±937. That works out to roughly 84 people per square mile.
What is the average income in 71280?
The median household income in 71280 is $75,768 per year, compared with a US median of $70,109. Per capita income is $43,945. Median income is more representative than an average because it isn't skewed by a small number of very high earners.
How expensive is housing in 71280?
The median home value is $260,000 and median gross rent is $1,043 a month. 71.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied.
Is 71280 a good place to live?
That depends on what you're looking for, but here are the facts: 24.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, the unemployment rate is 2.2%, and the median age is 39.6. The average commute is 27.5 minutes. We publish the numbers and let you weigh them.
What time zone is 71280 in?
71280 observes Central Time (America/Chicago). This zone observes daylight saving time.
How big is ZIP code 71280?
ZIP code 71280 covers 59.448 square miles of land plus 2.907 square miles of water, per the US Census Bureau's 2023 Gazetteer files.
Is 71280 urban, suburban or rural?
By population density, 71280 reads as a rural area. It holds 84 people per square mile across 59.448 square miles of land. For reference, densities above 10,000 per square mile generally indicate an urban core, 1,000–3,000 is typically suburban, and under 200 is rural. These are rules of thumb rather than official designations — the Census Bureau classifies urban and rural areas by census block, not by ZIP code.
How much is rent in 71280?
Median gross rent in 71280 is $1,043 a month, according to the American Community Survey. Gross rent includes contract rent plus the estimated cost of utilities and fuels, so it is closer to what a tenant actually pays than a headline rent figure. Of 1,981 occupied homes here, 559 are rented.
What is the commute like from 71280?
The average one-way commute from 71280 takes about 27.5 minutes. The most common way to travel is drove alone, used by 87.0% of workers aged 16 and over. Commute figures cover people who were employed and working outside the home during the survey period.
How many people work in 71280?
About 2,547 residents of 71280 are employed. Labor force participation stands at 66.6% and the unemployment rate is 2.2%. Note this counts residents by where they live, not by where they work — a ZIP with many offices can have far more jobs than employed residents.
Where should I stay when visiting 71280?
Accommodation in and around Sterlington, LA ranges with the character of the area. See the 'Where to stay' section on this page for local context, and use the live search there for current availability and pricing.
Does 71280 cover more than one city or county?
This page lists Sterlington as the primary place and Ouachita Parish as the county. ZIP codes follow mail delivery routes rather than municipal or county lines, so a single code can straddle boundaries, and USPS also recognises alternate acceptable city names for many codes. If you need the definitive answer for a specific street address, the USPS ZIP Code Lookup is the authority.
Can ZIP code 71280 change?
Yes. USPS adjusts ZIP codes as delivery volumes shift — codes are occasionally split, merged, retired or newly created, and boundaries move more often than most people assume. The Census Bureau's ZCTA definitions, which underpin the demographic figures on this page, are redrawn only once a decade, so the two can drift apart between censuses.

Methodology

Where this data comes from

  • Postal geography — GeoNames open postal code database (CC BY 4.0), cross-checked against the US Census Gazetteer.
  • Demographics, income, housing, commute — US Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2019–2023 5-Year Estimates, ZIP Code Tabulation Area 71280. Tables B01001, B01002, B01003, B02001, B03003, B08301, B08303, B11001, B15003, B17001, B19001, B19013, B19301, B23025, B25002, B25003, B25024, B25035, B25064, B25077, B28002.
  • Land and water area — US Census Bureau 2023 Gazetteer Files.
  • Weather — NOAA National Weather Service, fetched live in your browser.
  • Map — OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
On accuracy. ACS figures are survey estimates, not counts. The margin of error shown alongside the population figure means the true value has a 90% chance of falling in that range. For small ZIP codes the error can be large relative to the estimate — treat the direction as more reliable than the exact number. This page reports data for ZCTA 71280, the Census approximation of the USPS delivery area.

The figures on this page come from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey, which explains its methodology and release schedule in detail.