East Baton Rouge Parish area

Population and density of East Baton Rouge Parish

The Census Bureau estimates that 456,180 people lived in East Baton Rouge Parish on July 1, 2025. That ranks #163 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #1 of 64 in Louisiana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 456,796, the population has declined by 616 (−0.1%), compared with −0.9% for Louisiana as a whole.

With 455.5 square miles of land, that is 1,002 people per square mile (387 per km²), placing East Baton Rouge Parish #190 nationally for density and #3 in Louisiana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Louisiana median is 48. Put another way, there are about 0.639 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 East Baton Rouge Parish

5 incorporated places lie at least partly in East Baton Rouge Parish. Together they are home to 364,401 people (79.9%); the other 91,779 (20.1%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Baton Rouge city, with 222,795 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Zachary city grew fastest since then (+6%).

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

Metropolitan area

East Baton Rouge Parish is a central county of the Baton Rouge, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 10 county equivalents have 888,699 residents on 4,367.8 square miles of land; East Baton Rouge Parish accounts for 10.4% of the land and 51.3% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #61 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #68 by population. It belongs to the Baton Rouge-Hammond, LA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

28 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in East Baton Rouge Parish; 25 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

70714707227073970748707707077770791708017080270803708057080670807708087080970810708117081270813708147081570816708177081870819708207082570836

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 East Baton Rouge Parish

East Baton Rouge Parish shares a land border with 6 county equivalents. It has more land than 4 of them. The largest neighbor is Livingston Parish (648.1 mi²) and the smallest is West Baton Rouge Parish (192.3 mi²). Together with its neighbors, East Baton Rouge Parish forms a block of 3,065.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 14.9%.

How big is East Baton Rouge Parish compared with U.S. states?

East Baton Rouge Parish has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.3 times as much. Louisiana’s county land could hold about 95 areas the size of East Baton Rouge Parish.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.3 miles (34.3 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 East Baton Rouge Parish?

East Baton Rouge Parish has more land than 970 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 East Baton Rouge Parish at #2,280 nationally by total area, 28 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 3.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 2 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 East Baton Rouge 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.