Lincoln Parish area

Population and density of Lincoln Parish

The Census Bureau estimates that 48,360 people lived in Lincoln Parish on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,046 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #22 of 64 in Louisiana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 48,396, the population has declined by 36 (−0.1%), compared with −0.9% for Louisiana as a whole.

With 471.6 square miles of land, that is 103 people per square mile (40 per km²), placing Lincoln Parish #968 nationally for density and #18 in Louisiana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Louisiana median is 48. Put another way, there are about 6.2 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 Lincoln Parish

7 incorporated places lie at least partly in Lincoln Parish. Together they are home to 30,947 people (64%); the other 17,413 (36%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Ruston city, with 22,397 residents in the county. Among places with at least 1,000 residents in 2020, Ruston city grew fastest since then (+1.1%).

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

Metropolitan area

Lincoln Parish is a central county of the Ruston, LA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Lincoln Parish is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 471.6 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #447 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #238 by population. It belongs to the Monroe-Ruston, LA Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

8 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Lincoln Parish; 6 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

7100171227712347123571245712707127271275

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 Lincoln Parish

Lincoln Parish shares a land border with 5 county equivalents. Each of them has more land than Lincoln Parish. The largest neighbor is Union Parish (876.9 mi²) and the smallest is Jackson Parish (569.7 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Lincoln Parish forms a block of 4,094.5 mi² of land, of which it holds 11.5%.

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

Lincoln Parish has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 2.2 times as much. Louisiana’s county land could hold about 92 areas the size of Lincoln Parish.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 21.7 miles (35 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 Lincoln Parish?

Lincoln Parish has more land than 1,037 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 Lincoln Parish at #2,273 nationally by total area, 88 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 0.2%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 1 percentage points lower. 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 Lincoln 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.