Bossier Parish, Louisiana

Bossier Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States, in the northwest corner of the state,
directly across the Red River from Shreveport. It had a population of 128,746 at the 2020
census, an estimated 131,867 by 2025, and covers 840 square miles of land (2,200 km2) centred
near 32°41′N 93°36′W.

Benton is the parish seat; its postal code is 71006. The parish holds 3 incorporated towns,
1 city, a share of a second city, 2 census-designated places and several unincorporated
communities, and it runs on Central Time. Its FIPS code is 22015.

Towns & Villages in Bossier Parish

Bossier Parish has 15 named places on record: Bossier City, Benton, Haughton and Plain
Dealing are incorporated; a small western edge of Shreveport also falls inside the parish
line; Eastwood and Red Chute are census-designated places with no local government of their
own; the rest are unincorporated communities.

Shreveport’s 2020 population of 187,593 is almost entirely inside neighboring Caddo Parish;
only a small annexed edge of the city crosses the Red River into Bossier Parish, so no separate
Bossier-side population figure exists for it. Red Chute and Eastwood are both frequently confused
with Haughton on maps — all three sit along the US 80/79 corridor east of Bossier City, and
Red Chute in particular surrounds Haughton on three sides without sharing its town limits.

ZIP Codes

• 71111 — Bossier City (also serves 71112, 71113, 71171 and 71172, the city’s other
  ZIPs)
• 71006 — Benton
• 71037 — Haughton
• 71067 — Princeton

Plain Dealing, Red Chute, Eastwood, Elm Grove, Bellevue, Arkana, Atkins, Fillmore, Rocky Mount
and Taylortown have no dedicated ZIP code confirmed here; mail in those communities is typically
handled under a neighboring town’s code, and the parish’s own data sources don’t
break the assignment out cleanly enough to state one without guessing.

Geography

Bossier Parish sits in Louisiana’s northwest corner, on the east bank of the Red River.
Of its 867 square miles, 840 are land and 27 are water, about 3.1 percent — the Red River
forms the parish’s western edge, and Bodcau Bayou and Red Chute Bayou drain the interior
toward it. The terrain rises from the river bottomland in the west to gently rolling pine hills
in the east, typical of the West Gulf Coastal Plain.

Miller County and Lafayette County in Arkansas border the parish to the north (neither has a
page on this site yet). Webster
Parish lies to the east, Bienville
Parish to the southeast, Red River
Parish to the south, and Caddo
Parish, home to Shreveport, to the west across the Red River. All four border Bossier
Parish directly.

Demographics

Bossier Parish had a population of 128,746 at the 2020 census, and a 2025 estimate puts it
near 131,867. Bossier City and Red Chute are the two largest communities, together holding well
over half the parish’s population. Median household income runs about $69,617 (2024
estimate), well above Louisiana’s statewide figure of $58,229 (2023 ACS). Population density
works out to roughly 150 people per square mile of land, moderate for a parish anchoring the
north end of the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area.

Economy & Local Life

Health care and social assistance employs the most workers in the parish, about 10,061 people,
followed by retail trade at 6,771 and construction at 4,182, out of roughly 54,870 employed
residents. Barksdale Air Force Base, four miles east of Bossier City, is the parish’s
single largest employer: it hosts the 2nd Bomb Wing and its B-52H Stratofortress bombers, plus
the Air Force Reserve’s 307th Bomb Wing, with more than 15,000 active-duty and reserve
personnel assigned. Bossier City’s riverfront carries three riverboat casinos —
Margaritaville, Horseshoe and Boomtown — alongside Louisiana Downs horse-racing track, the
Louisiana Boardwalk shopping and dining strip, and the Brookshire Grocery Arena events center.
Bossier Parish Community College and Northwest Louisiana Technical Community College both serve
the parish. The base holds an annual open house that draws visitors from across the region.

History

The Louisiana legislature created Bossier Parish on 24 February 1843, carving it from the
western half of Claiborne Parish. It is named for Pierre Bossier, a state senator and U.S.
representative from Louisiana in the 1840s. The parish was largely spared direct fighting during
the Civil War, but the postwar decades brought organized racial violence — Bossier Parish
recorded 26 documented lynchings of Black residents by white mobs, the fifth-highest count of any
Louisiana parish, a history the parish does not advertise but that shaped its Reconstruction-era
politics.

Bossier City itself was founded later, in 1907, growing from a Red River cotton landing into
a railroad town and then, after crude oil was struck nearby in 1908, an oil-boom city. Its
riverfront later shifted toward tourism and casino gambling, which remains a core part of the
local economy today.

Getting There

Interstate 20 runs east–west through the parish via Bossier City and Haughton;
Interstate 220 loops around Shreveport’s north side. US Highways 71, 79 and 80 and
Louisiana Highways 2 and 3 also cross the parish.

• Shreveport — directly across the Red River from Bossier City
• Minden (Webster Parish seat) — about 20 miles east
• Ruston — about 55 miles southeast
• Texarkana — about 70 miles northwest

Shreveport Regional Airport, on the west side of the Red River in Shreveport, is the
nearest commercial airport, a short drive from Bossier City over one of the river bridges.
No Amtrak line reaches the parish; the closest station is the Texas Eagle stop in Marshall,
Texas, about 40 miles southwest.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Bossier Parish located?
It sits in Louisiana’s northwest corner, on the east bank of the Red River directly
across from Shreveport, bordered by Webster, Bienville and Red River parishes and by Miller
and Lafayette counties in Arkansas.

What is the population of Bossier Parish?
128,746 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 131,867.

How big is Bossier Parish?
867 square miles total, of which 840 square miles are land and 27 square miles are water
(2,200 km2 and 70 km2).

What is the parish seat of Bossier Parish?
Benton, a town of about 2,048 people, is the parish seat.

How many towns and cities are in Bossier Parish?
Four incorporated places — Bossier City, Benton, Haughton and Plain Dealing —
plus a small edge of Shreveport, two census-designated places (Red Chute and Eastwood), and
several unincorporated communities including Princeton, Elm Grove and Bellevue.

What ZIP codes does Bossier Parish use?
71111 (plus 71112, 71113, 71171 and 71172) for Bossier City, 71006 for Benton, 71037 for
Haughton and 71067 for Princeton.

What is Bossier Parish known for?
Barksdale Air Force Base and its B-52 bomber wings, and Bossier City’s riverboat
casinos and Louisiana Downs racetrack along the Red River.

More counties in this state: Towns
and villages in Louisiana.