Washington Parish area

Population and density of Washington Parish

The Census Bureau estimates that 44,937 people lived in Washington Parish on July 1, 2025. That ranks #1,115 of 3,222 county equivalents nationally and #26 of 64 in Louisiana. Since the April 1, 2020 estimates base of 45,459, the population has declined by 522 (−1.1%), compared with −0.9% for Louisiana as a whole.

With 669.6 square miles of land, that is 67 people per square mile (26 per km²), placing Washington Parish #1,291 nationally for density and #27 in Louisiana. The median county equivalent has 47 people per square mile; the Louisiana median is 48. Put another way, there are about 9.5 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 Washington Parish

4 incorporated places lie at least partly in Washington Parish. Together they are home to 14,460 people (32.2%); the other 30,477 (67.8%) live outside any incorporated place, in unincorporated communities and rural areas.

The largest is Bogalusa city, with 10,321 residents in the county. The county seat, Franklinton town, has 3,576 residents.

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

Metropolitan area

Washington Parish is a central county of the Bogalusa, LA Micropolitan Statistical Area. Washington Parish is the area’s only county equivalent, so the micro area has the same 669.6 square miles of land. By combined land it ranks #325 of 542 micropolitan areas, and #275 by population. It belongs to the New Orleans-Metairie-Slidell, LA-MS Combined Statistical Area.

ZIP codes

6 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas have land in Washington Parish; 4 of them have most of their land inside the county, and the others mainly cover neighboring areas.

704267042770431704387044470450

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 Washington Parish

Washington Parish shares a land border with 6 county equivalents, including 4 in Mississippi. It has more land than 3 of them. The largest neighbor is St. Tammany Parish (845.3 mi²) and the smallest is Walthall County (403.9 mi²). Together with its neighbors, Washington Parish forms a block of 4,473.1 mi² of land, of which it holds 15%.

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

Washington Parish has less land than any of the 50 states. Rhode Island, the smallest state by land area, has 1,033.9 mi², about 1.5 times as much. Louisiana’s county land could hold about 65 areas the size of Washington Parish.

Another way to picture it: the same land area would fill a square about 25.9 miles (41.6 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 Washington Parish?

Washington Parish has more land than 1,816 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 Washington Parish at #1,507 nationally by total area, 101 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 0.9%, compared with a national county-equivalent median of 1.2% — 0.2 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 Washington 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.