St. James Parish area

Population and density of St. James Parish

The Census Bureau estimates that 18,938 people lived in St. James Parish on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,940 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #47 of 64 in Louisiana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 20,194, the population has declined by 1,256 (−6.2%), compared with −0.9% for Louisiana as a whole.

With 237.9 square miles of land, that is 80 people per square mile (31 per km²), placing St. James Parish #1,163 nationally for density and #25 in Louisiana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Louisiana median is 48. Put another way, there are about 8 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 St. James Parish

2 incorporated places lie at least partly in St. James Parish. Together they are home to 5,511 people (29.1%); the other 13,427 (70.9%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Lutcher town, with 2,822 residents in the county.

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

Metropolitan area

St. James Parish is a central county of the New Orleans-Metairie, LA Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its 7 county equivalents have 970,849 residents on 2,358.6 square miles of land; St. James Parish accounts for 10.1% of the land and 2% of the residents. By combined land it ranks #139 of 393 metropolitan areas, and #60 by population. It belongs to the New Orleans-Metairie-Slidell, LA-MS Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

7 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in St. James Parish, and each lies mostly inside the county.

70052700717008670090707237074370763

ZIP Code Tabulation Areas are the Census Bureau’s approximations of USPS ZIP Code service areas, from the 2020 Census relationship files. Post-office-box and single-address ZIP Codes have no tabulation area.

Counties bordering St. James Parish

St. James Parish shares a land border with 4 county equivalents. It has more land than 1 of them. The largest neighbor is Lafourche Parish (1,069.7 mi²) and the smallest is St. John the Baptist Parish (214.5 mi²). Together with its neighbors, St. James Parish forms a block of 2,156.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 11%.

How big is St. James Parish compared with U.S. states?

St. James Parish has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 4.3 times as much. Louisiana’s county land could hold about 182 areas the size of St. James Parish.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 15.4 miles (24.8 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 St. James Parish?

St. James Parish has more land than 290 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 St. James Parish at #2,945 nationally by total area, 13 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 5.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 4.8 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 St. James 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.