Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana

Plaquemines Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States, following the Mississippi River south
from Belle Chasse to the Gulf of Mexico. It had a population of 23,515 at the 2020 census, an
estimated 22,256 by 2025, and covers 2,567 square miles (6,650 km2) centred near 29°23′N 89°29′W.

Pointe à la Hache is the parish seat; its postal code is 70082. The parish has 9
census-designated places and about a dozen more named unincorporated communities, no incorporated
cities or towns of its own, and it runs on Central Time.

Towns & Villages in Plaquemines Parish

Plaquemines Parish has no incorporated municipalities — every place on this list is
either a census-designated place (CDP), with defined boundaries the Census Bureau tracks for
population counts, or an unincorporated community with no formal boundary and no separate
population figure.

New Orleans Station is not a town in the ordinary sense: the Census Bureau created it as a
separate CDP in 2020 to cover the residential population of Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base
New Orleans, which sits inside Belle Chasse. The two share a ZIP code but are counted apart.
Pilottown, at the river’s mouth, has no road access at all — it is reached only by
boat, and its year-round population is now close to zero. Two former settlements, Burrwood and
La Balize, are recorded on old maps but no longer exist as inhabited places.

ZIP Codes

• 70037 — Belle Chasse (also covers the New Orleans Station CDP)
• 70038 — Boothville
• 70040 — Braithwaite
• 70041 — Buras
• 70050 — Empire
• 70082 — Pointe à la Hache
• 70083 — Port Sulphur
• 70091 — Venice

Ironton, Davant, Phoenix, Jesuit Bend, Bohemia, Carlisle, Dalcour, West Pointe à la
Hache, Pilottown and Port Eads have no ZIP code of their own; mail there is delivered under the
nearest post office town’s code. Triumph, a CDP, likewise has no separate ZIP and is served
through Buras.

Geography

Plaquemines Parish carries the Mississippi River’s final 70 miles to the Gulf of Mexico,
splitting into a narrow ribbon of land on both riverbanks that widens into open marsh and open
water toward the coast. Of its 2,567 square miles, only 780 are land; the remaining 1,787, about
70 percent of the parish, are water — the highest water share of any Louisiana parish and
the reason Plaquemines is also the largest parish in the state by total area. Density works out
to roughly 30 people per square mile of land.

Orleans Parish, home to New Orleans, borders Plaquemines to the north. Jefferson Parish lies to
the west and St. Bernard Parish
lies to the northeast; south, east and west of the settled river corridor, the parish opens
directly onto the Gulf of Mexico. No live post exists yet for Orleans Parish on this site.

Demographics

Plaquemines Parish had a population of 23,515 at the 2020 census, and the latest Census Bureau
estimate puts it lower, near 22,256, a decline driven by repeated hurricane damage and rebuilding
delays. Belle Chasse and New Orleans Station together hold well over half the parish’s
residents. Median household income in the parish was $57,204 (2019 ACS), close to Louisiana’s
statewide figure of $58,229 (2023 ACS). Racial composition in 2020 was 60.8 percent white, 20.9
percent Black and 9.5 percent Hispanic or Latino.

Economy & Local Life

Oil and gas drive much of the parish economy: as of 2012 Plaquemines was the largest
crude-oil-producing parish in Louisiana, and several refineries and offshore-support bases operate
along the river corridor. The Plaquemines Port ranks among the largest ports in the country by
tonnage, handling mostly domestic barge and ship traffic. Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New
Orleans, in Belle Chasse, is headquarters for the Louisiana Air National Guard’s 159th
Fighter Wing and a major civilian and military employer. Seafood is the other pillar —
Empire and Venice together rank among the country’s largest seafood ports by weight and
value, landing oysters, shrimp and menhaden, and the parish is long known for its citrus orchards,
particularly Plaquemines satsumas grown along the river’s natural levees. Belle Chasse hosts
the annual Orange Festival and Plaquemines Parish Seafood Festival.

History

Louisiana’s legislature organized Plaquemines Parish in 1807. Its name comes from
“piakimin,” an Atakapa word for persimmons, after the fruit trees that once surrounded
a French military post on the river. For much of the twentieth century the parish was controlled
by political boss Leander Perez, whose segregationist administration withheld basic services from
Black communities; Ironton, a historically Black settlement, went without parish-supplied running
water until 1980, after national press coverage of the residents’ long fight for it.

Hurricane Katrina made its Louisiana landfall at Buras on August 29, 2005, and the parish has
absorbed repeated hurricane damage since — including major flooding in 2011 and again from
Hurricane Ida in 2021, which made landfall just south of Ironton as a Category 4 storm, devastating
lower parish communities for the second time in two decades.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses Plaquemines Parish. Louisiana Highway 23 runs the length of the
east bank down to Venice, and Louisiana Highway 39 serves the west bank; both are the only paved
routes south of Belle Chasse.

• New Orleans — about 15 miles north of Belle Chasse
• Venice — about 75 miles south of New Orleans, the end of the road on LA 23
• Port Sulphur — roughly midway down the east bank
• Chalmette, St. Bernard Parish — across the river from the parish’s northeast corner

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, about 25 miles north of Belle Chasse, is
the nearest major commercial airport. New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal is the nearest Amtrak
station, serving the Crescent, City of New Orleans and Sunset Limited routes.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Plaquemines Parish located?
It follows the Mississippi River south from the New Orleans area to the Gulf of Mexico, bordered
by Orleans, Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes.

What is the population of Plaquemines Parish?
23,515 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 22,256.

How big is Plaquemines Parish?
2,567 square miles (6,650 km2) in total, but only 780 square miles are land — the rest is
river, marsh and Gulf water.

What is the parish seat of Plaquemines Parish?
Pointe à la Hache, on the east bank of the Mississippi River, though most parish offices
now operate out of Belle Chasse.

How many towns are in Plaquemines Parish?
None are incorporated. The parish has 9 census-designated places — Belle Chasse, New
Orleans Station, Port Sulphur, Buras, Empire, Boothville, Triumph, Pointe à la Hache and
Venice — plus about a dozen more named unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes does Plaquemines Parish use?
70037 for Belle Chasse, 70038 for Boothville, 70040 for Braithwaite, 70041 for Buras, 70050 for
Empire, 70082 for Pointe à la Hache, 70083 for Port Sulphur, and 70091 for Venice.

What is Plaquemines Parish known for?
Its citrus orchards, its seafood ports at Empire and Venice, and being the point where Hurricane
Katrina made its Louisiana landfall in 2005.

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