Cities of Sin – A Bucket List of Fun

March 15, 2025
DARKLADY

Cities in the Creole State Make WalletHub’s Bucket List of the Most Sin-Filled.

Mardi Gras is over, and Lent has begun. The beads and bare breasts of tourists to Louisiana have been put away, replaced by rosaries and charcoal crosses on the foreheads of the faithful. After a Tuesday of loud, sin-riddled debauchery, New Orleans takes on a more somber tone. While the city recovers from its hangover and bids adieu to its many out-of-town visitors, it begins the process of making amends for the behavior with 40 days of fasting, praying, and reflecting. Ultimately, the city’s soul will be clean and fresh in time for Easter, the holiday that celebrates fertility, fecundity, bunnies, chicks, and colored eggs.

New Orleans is famous for its amazing music, delicious food, paddle wheelers on the muddy Mississippi, vintage architecture, vampires, fortune tellers, and wharf cockroaches the size of small dogs. According to the Shreveport Times, personal finance company WalletHub has also found a place for The Big Easy on its annual list of America’s 180 most sinful cities. This is determined by how many of 37 key indicators of vice and illicit behavior are present in each city. Among those are violent crime per capita, excessive drinking, and number of adult entertainment businesses per capita.

Despite its well-financed reputation as a city of excess, WalletHub did not find that the Birthplace of Jazz was the most sin filled city in Louisiana. It clocks in at 18 on the list of 180 cities of sin nationwide and second of the three Louisiana cities that made the list. With an overall WalletHub Vice Index score of 45.92, the City That Care Forgot suffers mightily from Vanity (90), Greed (62), Lust (39), and Laziness (34). Lesser but nonetheless unpleasant sins include Anger and Hatred (21), Jealousy (19), and way at the bottom are Excesses and Vices (7).

One slot more sinful than New Orleans according to WalletHub is the state’s capital, Baton Rouge. This infamous Louisiana “college town” has an active arts, culture, and food scene. Louisiana State University and Southern University are packed with young adults, which may explain why the city ranked 17 on the 2025 list of America’s most sinful cities.

With a total Vice Index score of 47.23, the top sins are among the favorites of college students. Lust (111), Greed (96), and Vanity (38). Given its dedication to Laziness (20), it’s surprising that anyone in the city has the energy to be proud of their greedy lust, let alone pursue it. Perhaps that’s why Jealousy (11) is a more common sin than Anger and Hatred (7) or Excesses and Vices (6).

For travelers who seek a more aggressively sinful city with vices that would raise anyone’s blood pressure, Shreveport is the place to go. Ranked at a modest number 59 on the list, its Vice Index score is a mere 39.78, which is the lowest of the Louisiana contenders for most sin packed city. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t plenty of sin happening in Shreveport. Enthusiastically topping Ratchet City’s list is the ancient sin of Greed (157) followed remotely by Vanity (87).

Shreveport, in addition to having been a rap music hub in the 1990s, has also been a thriving gambling hub since the same decade. With all those greedy, vain people, it’s hardly a shock that Lust (78) is the next highest sin. Likewise, Jealousy (61) is a problem, which makes sense in context. Those not possessed by the green dragon have nothing to be proud of unless they consider Anger and Hatred (54) to be signs of success. On the plus side, the city is bustling and busy with active people who don’t have much time for Laziness (18) or Excesses and Vices (14).

Louisiana is not Nevada and none of the Pelican State’s cities can compete with Las Vegas for the title of “Sin City.” But if you’re in the mood for humidity, swamps, large reptiles, French Creole and French Caribbean architecture, Antebellum mansions, eerie cemeteries, gumbo, fried chicken, barbecue, jambalaya, heavy dialects, jazz, zydeco, Creole and Cajun rhythms, rum, absinthe, sazerac, grasshopper, the ever-popular hurricane, and strip clubs in historic buildings, Louisiana can scratch your itch and diminish your purity test score.