County facts · Land area · October 22, 2026
Largest Parishes in Louisiana by Area and Population
The largest Louisiana parishes by land area and 2023 population, plus the smallest, parish seats and a link to each official parcel map.
Looking for the largest parishes in Louisiana? Louisiana is divided into 64 parishes, which serve the role counties play in other states and are counted by the Census Bureau as county equivalents. Together they cover about 43,210 square miles of land, based on the Census Bureau's 2020 Gazetteer. The largest by land area is Vernon Parish, at about 1,327 square miles, roughly 7.8 times the size of the smallest, Orleans Parish (169 sq mi). Measured by people instead, the largest is East Baton Rouge Parish, with about 448,467 residents in the Census Bureau's July 1, 2023 estimate.
The tables below rank the parishes both ways. Each row links to the parish's Platbookmapper page and straight to its official parcel viewer.
Louisiana parishes at a glance
- Parishes: 64
- Land area: about 43,210 sq mi, plus about 9,165 sq mi of water inside parish lines
- Residents, 2023 estimates: about 4,573,749, or about 106 people per square mile of land
- Median parish land area: about 646 sq mi
- With a verified public parcel viewer in our directory: 39 of 64
The 10 largest Louisiana parishes by land area
| # | Parish | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | People per sq mi | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vernon Parish | Leesville | 1,327 | 46,250 | 35 | parish web map |
| 2 | Rapides Parish | Alexandria | 1,320 | 126,260 | 96 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 3 | Cameron Parish | Cameron | 1,285 | 4,768 | 3.7 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 4 | Natchitoches Parish | Natchitoches | 1,253 | 36,291 | 29 | GeoPortal Maps |
| 5 | Terrebonne Parish | Houma | 1,230 | 103,616 | 84 | ArcGIS Experience Builder |
| 6 | Vermilion Parish | Abbeville | 1,174 | 56,992 | 49 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 7 | Beauregard Parish | DeRidder | 1,157 | 36,827 | 32 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 8 | Lafourche Parish | Thibodaux | 1,068 | 95,056 | 89 | parish web map |
| 9 | Calcasieu Parish | Lake Charles | 1,064 | 203,761 | 191 | parish web map |
| 10 | Winn Parish | Winnfield | 950 | 13,216 | 14 | parish web map |
Together these 10 cover about 27% of Louisiana's land area and hold about 16% of its residents.
The 10 most populous Louisiana parishes
| # | Parish | Seat | 2023 pop. | Land (sq mi) | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | East Baton Rouge Parish | Baton Rouge | 448,467 | 456 | GeoPortal Maps |
| 2 | Jefferson Parish | Gretna | 421,777 | 301 | GeoPortal Maps |
| 3 | Orleans Parish | New Orleans | 364,136 | 169 | parish web map |
| 4 | St. Tammany Parish | Covington | 275,583 | 845 | GeoPortal Maps |
| 5 | Lafayette Parish | Lafayette | 249,750 | 269 | Beacon (Schneider Geospatial) |
| 6 | Caddo Parish | Shreveport | 226,386 | 879 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 7 | Calcasieu Parish | Lake Charles | 203,761 | 1,064 | parish web map |
| 8 | Ouachita Parish | Monroe | 157,568 | 610 | no verified public viewer listed yet |
| 9 | Livingston Parish | Livingston | 150,145 | 648 | GeoPortal Maps |
| 10 | Tangipahoa Parish | Amite City | 138,064 | 791 | parish web map |
These 10 hold about 58% of Louisiana's residents in the 2023 estimates.
The 5 smallest Louisiana parishes by land area
| Parish | Seat | Land (sq mi) | 2023 pop. | Parcel viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orleans Parish | New Orleans | 169 | 364,136 | parish web map |
| West Baton Rouge Parish | Port Allen | 192 | 28,266 | parish web map |
| St. John the Baptist Parish | Edgard | 214 | 39,592 | GeoPortal Maps |
| St. James Parish | Convent | 238 | 19,191 | parish web map |
| Lafayette Parish | Lafayette | 269 | 249,750 | Beacon (Schneider Geospatial) |
Most and least crowded
- Most people per square mile: Orleans Parish, about 2,148 (then Jefferson Parish, 1,401, and East Baton Rouge Parish, 985)
- Fewest people per square mile: Cameron Parish, about 3.7 (then Tensas Parish, 6.2, and Catahoula Parish, 12)
Parishes with the most water
The Census Bureau reports water separately from land. It counts lakes, reservoirs, rivers and, along a coast or a Great Lake, the water inside the boundary.
- Plaquemines Parish: about 1,787 sq mi of water, 70% of its total area
- St. Bernard Parish: about 1,778 sq mi of water, 82% of its total area
- Terrebonne Parish: about 852 sq mi of water, 41% of its total area
Using these numbers in a land search
- Land area is not parcel count. A large rural parish can hold fewer parcels than a small suburban one, so size alone says little about how busy its parcel map is.
- Search, don't scroll. In a big parish, type an address, owner name or parcel number into the viewer's search box, where it has one, instead of panning across the map.
- Records follow the parish line. In Louisiana the parish clerk of court records deeds and the parish assessor keeps the tax rolls, so a tract that crosses a parish line usually has a parcel number in each parish.
- Rounded figures. Land and water areas are rounded to whole square miles (one decimal for very small places). People per square mile is the 2023 estimate divided by land area.
Related guides
- Louisiana parish GIS websites by viewer
- Louisiana landowner maps for hunting
- Arkansas–Louisiana border counties
- Louisiana–Mississippi border counties
- Louisiana–Texas border counties
- Largest county in each state
- Largest counties in the US by land area
More: All Louisiana parishes on Platbookmapper
Sources
- U.S. Census Bureau Gazetteer files, 2020 county land and water area.
- U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program, county totals, Vintage 2023 (July 1, 2023 estimates)
- Platbookmapper county GIS directory (live data file behind our county pages, pulled October 22, 2026) for each official parcel viewer.
- County seats: Wikidata (county seat property), cross-checked against Census place names.