De Soto Parish area

Population and density of De Soto Parish

The Census Bureau estimates that 27,381 people lived in De Soto Parish on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,579 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #36 of 64 in Louisiana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 26,808, the population has grown by 573 (+2.1%), compared with −0.9% for Louisiana as a whole.

With 876.5 square miles of land, that is 31 people per square mile (12 per km²), placing De Soto Parish #1,968 nationally for density and #42 in Louisiana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Louisiana median is 48. Put another way, there are about 20 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 De Soto Parish

8 incorporated places lie at least partly in De Soto Parish. Together they are home to 9,567 people (34.9%); the other 17,814 (65.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Mansfield city, with 4,475 residents in the county. By land, Stonewall town is the largest at 8.574 mi². Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Stonewall town grew fastest since then (+17%).

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

Metropolitan area

De Soto Parish is an outlying county of the Shreveport-Bossier City, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 3 county equivalents have 383,474 residents on 2,595.6 square miles of land; De Soto Parish accounts for 33.8% of the land and 7.1% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #127 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #147 by population. It belongs to the Shreveport-Bossier City-Minden, LA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

10 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in De Soto Parish; 8 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

71027710307103271046710497105271063710657107871419

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 De Soto Parish

De Soto Parish shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 2 in Texas. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Natchitoches Parish (1,253 mi²) and the smallest is Red River Parish (389 mi²). Together with its neighbors, De Soto Parish forms a block of 5,871.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.9%.

How big is De Soto Parish compared with U.S. states?

De Soto Parish has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.2 times as much. Louisiana’s county land could hold about 49 areas the size of De Soto Parish.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 29.6 miles (47.6 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 De Soto Parish?

De Soto Parish has more land than 2,299 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 De Soto Parish at #996 nationally by total area, 73 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%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.9 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 De Soto 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.