Calcasieu Parish area

Population and density of Calcasieu Parish

The Census Bureau estimates that 208,466 people lived in Calcasieu Parish on July 1, 2025. That ranks #351 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #7 of 64 in Louisiana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 216,778, the population has declined by 8,312 (−3.8%), compared with −0.9% for Louisiana as a whole.

With 1,064.2 square miles of land, that is 196 people per square mile (76 per km²), placing Calcasieu Parish #648 nationally for density and #10 in Louisiana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Louisiana median is 48. Put another way, there are about 3.3 acres of land per resident.

U.S. Census Bureau, Vintage 2025 population estimates. Estimates are revised each year and are not decennial census counts. Density divides the whole population by the whole county’s land area, so it describes an average, not how settlement is distributed within the county. Population sources and methods.

Cities and towns in Calcasieu Parish

6 incorporated places lie at least partly in Calcasieu Parish. Together they are home to 117,225 people (56.2%); the other 91,241 (43.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Lake Charles city, with 82,676 residents in the county.

Population: U.S. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 subcounty estimates, counting only the part of each place inside Calcasieu Parish. Land: 2026 Census Gazetteer, for the whole place even where it extends into other counties. How communities are listed.

Metropolitan area

Calcasieu Parish is a central county of the Lake Charles, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 244,655 residents on 3,006.4 square miles of land; Calcasieu Parish accounts for 35.4% of the land and 85.2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #99 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #201 by population. It belongs to the Lake Charles-DeRidder, LA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

18 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Calcasieu Parish; 15 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

705497060170605706077060970611706157062970630706337064670647706577066170663706657066870669

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Lighter codes have less than half of their land in this county. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering Calcasieu Parish

Calcasieu Parish shares a land border with 5 county equivalents, including 2 in Texas. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is Cameron Parish (1,290.7 mi²) and the smallest is Orange County (333.8 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Calcasieu Parish forms a block of 5,431.4 mi² of land, of which it holds 19.6%.

How big is Calcasieu Parish compared with U.S. states?

Calcasieu Parish has more land than 1 of the 50 states. It is about 1 times the land area of Rhode Island (1,033.9 mi²), while Delaware, the next larger state, has 1.8 times as much land (1,948.6 mi²). Louisiana’s county land could hold about 41 areas the size of Calcasieu Parish.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 32.6 miles (52.5 km) on each side. Real county shapes are rarely square, so this is a scale reference rather than a width or driving distance.

State figures are the sums of each state’s county-equivalent land measurements in the same Census release, so states and counties are compared on the same basis. Published state totals can differ slightly because of rounding. Compare all states · Counties bigger than entire states.

What stands out about Calcasieu Parish?

Calcasieu Parish has more land than 2,613 of the other 3,221 county equivalents in the dataset.

A median is the middle county-equivalent measurement, not the average of the largest and smallest. All three bars use the same linear scale. Very small areas may appear as a thin sliver; the labels retain their values.

Does including water change its rank?

Using land plus water places Calcasieu Parish at #671 nationally by total area, 62 places farther from the top than its land rank. Other county equivalents gain more area when their water measurements are included.

Its water share is 2.7%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1.6 percentage points higher. This describes the statistical geography’s land/water mix, not flood exposure or developable land.

Closest positions in the national land ranking

These entries sit immediately beside Calcasieu Parish in the national ranking. They can be in different states and are not necessarily geographic neighbors.

Calculated from the same Census release as the area table. Total-area order uses original ALAND + AWATER; water shares and chart labels use published square miles. Calculation details.