Orleans Parish, Louisiana

Orleans Parish is a consolidated city-parish in Louisiana, United States, on the east bank of the Mississippi River where the river bends toward Lake Pontchartrain, about 80 miles southeast of Baton Rouge, the state capital. It had a population of 383,997 at the 2020 census, an estimated 362,701 by 2024, and covers 169.4 square miles of land (438.8 km2), plus roughly 180 square miles of water, centred near 29°57′N 90°04′W.

New Orleans is both the parish seat and the parish’s only municipality — city and parish government have operated as one body since the 19th century, so there is no separate parish administration; its main postal code is 70112. The parish holds roughly 70 recognized neighborhoods grouped into 13 planning districts and 17 wards, and it runs on Central Time. Its FIPS code is 22071.

Neighborhoods in Orleans Parish

Orleans Parish is coextensive with the city of New Orleans, so it has no incorporated towns of its own — one city government covers the whole parish. What the old Wikipedia-derived list on this page mixed together as generic “places” are properly the city’s neighborhoods: statistical areas mapped by the New Orleans City Planning Commission in 1980 and still used by planners, the Census Bureau and neighborhood associations today. The count is debated — the original 1980 study named 68, a 2001 revision brought it to 76, and roughly 72–73 is the figure most commonly cited now — because CPC boundaries were drawn to avoid crossing census tract lines rather than to match how residents actually describe their block. None of these carry a separate municipal government or their own population count from the Census Bureau; the table below lists the parish’s best-known 34, grouped by broad area of the city, with the ZIP code each falls in.

Two pairs get confused often. Algiers, the parish’s only West Bank district, is itself made up of a dozen neighborhoods, of which Algiers Point — the historic riverfront core opposite the French Quarter — is the one visitors mean when they just say “Algiers.” And Faubourg Marigny and Bywater are frequently run together as “Marigny/Bywater”: they are adjacent, both downriver of the French Quarter, but the CPC treats them as two separate neighborhoods split roughly at Franklin Avenue.

ZIP Codes

Seventeen standard ZIP codes cover residential Orleans Parish; a further set of PO-box-only and institutional codes (70139, 70141–70190 range) serve federal buildings, banks and the Navy support facility rather than households.

• 70112 — Central Business District, Iberville
• 70113 — Central City
• 70114 — Algiers (Algiers Point, Behrman)
• 70115 — Uptown, Irish Channel
• 70116 — French Quarter, Trémé, Faubourg Marigny
• 70117 — Bywater, St. Claude, Upper and Lower Ninth Ward
• 70118 — Carrollton
• 70119 — Mid-City, Trémé-Lafitte, Bayou St. John
• 70122 — Gentilly Terrace, Pontchartrain Park
• 70124 — Lakeview, Lakeshore
• 70125 — Broadmoor, Hollygrove
• 70126 — Gentilly Woods, Pines Village
• 70127 — New Orleans East (West Lake Forest)
• 70128 — New Orleans East (Plum Orchard)
• 70129 — New Orleans East (Village de l’Est)
• 70130 — Garden District, Lower Garden District, Warehouse District
• 70131 — Algiers (English Turn, McDonogh)

Because the whole parish is one incorporated city, every address gets a residential ZIP — there are no unincorporated hamlets left without mail service, unlike the rural counties on this site.

Geography

The parish sits on the Mississippi River’s natural levee and the low, largely reclaimed swampland behind it, most of which lies at or below sea level and depends on a system of pumps and levees to stay dry. Of the parish’s roughly 350 square miles, only 169.4 are land; the rest is open water, chiefly Lake Pontchartrain to the north, a brackish estuary covering about 630 square miles at its full extent, of which a large share lies within the parish boundary. The Mississippi River forms the parish’s southern and western edge, curving through it in the crescent shape that gives New Orleans its nickname, the Crescent City.

Four parishes border Orleans: Jefferson to the west, on both banks of the river; St. Bernard to the southeast; Plaquemines to the south, meeting Orleans near the English Turn bend; and St. Tammany across Lake Pontchartrain to the north, reached by the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.

Demographics

The 2020 census counted 383,997 residents, and the Census Bureau’s 2024 estimate puts the parish at 362,701 — a decline of about 5 percent, continuing a slow post-Hurricane Katrina slide after the sharper rebound of the 2010s. Population density works out to roughly 2,267 people per square mile of land at the 2020 count. Median household income is $55,339 (American Community Survey 2019–2023 five-year estimate), below the Louisiana figure of $57,650. Uptown and the Lakefront districts are the parish’s more affluent areas; New Orleans East and parts of the Lower Ninth Ward, still rebuilding housing stock lost in 2005, remain its lowest-density and lowest-income sections.

Economy & Local Life

Tourism and hospitality anchor the local economy, drawing visitors to the French Quarter, the Garden District and events including Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest; the sector supports tens of thousands of parish jobs in hotels, restaurants and event services. The Port of New Orleans, one of the busiest ports in the United States by tonnage, handles container, breakbulk and cruise traffic along the Mississippi riverfront. Healthcare is the largest steady employer base: Ochsner Health and LCMC Health both run major hospital campuses in the parish, alongside University Medical Center New Orleans. Higher education is a significant presence too — Tulane University, Xavier University of Louisiana and Loyola University New Orleans are all based here, with Tulane counted among the city’s largest private employers. Entergy and the City of New Orleans government round out the list of major employers.

Mardi Gras, the Carnival season culminating on Fat Tuesday (a movable date, 47 days before Easter), is the biggest annual event on the calendar — parading krewes, street celebrations and a citywide holiday draw visitors from across the country. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, held over two weekends each spring at the Fair Grounds Race Course, is the parish’s other signature event.

History

French naval officer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville founded New Orleans in 1718, naming it for Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, then regent of France. Spain administered the colony from 1763 to 1800, when it briefly returned to France before the United States bought it in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase. The parish itself was created that same era as one of Louisiana’s original administrative divisions, coextensive with the city from the start.

The Battle of New Orleans, fought on 8 January 1815 at Chalmette in what is now neighboring St. Bernard Parish, was the last major engagement of the War of 1812 and made Andrew Jackson a national hero. Through the 19th century the port grew into one of the country’s largest, built substantially on the domestic slave trade and cotton and sugar exports; New Orleans held the country’s biggest slave market before the Civil War.

The parish’s hardest modern history is Hurricane Katrina. The storm made landfall near the Louisiana–Mississippi border on 29 August 2005; federal levee and floodwall failures, not the storm itself, flooded roughly 80 percent of the city, including nearly all of the Lower Ninth Ward and New Orleans East. More than 1,800 people died across the Gulf Coast region. Twenty years on, some neighborhoods — particularly the Lower Ninth Ward — still have markedly less housing than before the storm, while others rebuilt at or above pre-Katrina density.

Getting There

Interstate 10 runs east–west through the parish on an elevated span through downtown and Mid-City; Interstate 610 offers a bypass north of the city center; the Crescent City Connection bridges carry US 90 across the Mississippi to Algiers on the West Bank; and the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, the longest continuous bridge over water in the world, links the parish to St. Tammany Parish to the north.

• Baton Rouge — 80 miles northwest
• Slidell — 30 miles northeast, across the Causeway or via I-10/I-12
• Mobile, Alabama — 140 miles east
• Jackson, Mississippi — 185 miles north

The parish is served directly by Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY), about 15 miles west of downtown in neighboring Jefferson Parish. Union Passenger Terminal, downtown on Loyola Avenue, is the parish’s Amtrak station, serving the City of New Orleans, Crescent and Sunset Limited routes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Orleans Parish located?
In southeastern Louisiana, on the Mississippi River between the river and Lake Pontchartrain, about 80 miles southeast of Baton Rouge.

What is the population of Orleans Parish?
383,997 at the 2020 census, estimated at 362,701 in 2024.

How big is Orleans Parish?
Roughly 350 square miles in total — 169.4 square miles of land (438.8 km2) and about 180 square miles of water, chiefly Lake Pontchartrain.

What is the parish seat of Orleans Parish?
New Orleans is the parish seat and its only municipality; parish and city government are one and the same.

Is New Orleans a city or a parish?
Both — New Orleans and Orleans Parish share identical boundaries and one consolidated government, unlike every other parish in Louisiana.

How many neighborhoods are in Orleans Parish?
Around 70 to 73, depending on the source, mapped by the City Planning Commission into 13 planning districts. There are no separate incorporated towns.

What ZIP codes cover Orleans Parish?
70112 through 70119, and 70122 through 70131 — 17 standard residential codes in all.

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