Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana

Pointe Coupee Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States, on the west bank of the Mississippi River northwest of Baton Rouge. It had a population of 20,758 at the 2020 census and covers 591 square miles (1,530 km2), of which 557 square miles (1,440 km2) is land, centred near 30°43′N 91°36′W.

New Roads is the parish seat, and its postal code is 70760. The parish has one city, two towns, one village, one census-designated place, and roughly two dozen unincorporated communities. It sits in the Central time zone and is part of the Baton Rouge metropolitan area.

Towns & Villages in Pointe Coupee Parish

Pointe Coupee Parish has five incorporated places — one city, two towns, one village, and one census-designated place (CDP) — alongside a long list of unincorporated communities and rural settlements strung along False River and the Mississippi River batture. The table below carries over every legitimate place name from the parish’s older records; a few duplicate or garbled entries from that list have been dropped (noted below).

Two entries from the parish’s older listing pointed at the same place: “Pointe Coupee” and “Torras Landing” both describe unincorporated riverside settlements near the parish’s namesake bend, so they’ve been folded into the surrounding community entries rather than listed separately. A handful of names that trace to old plantation-house labels rather than settlements — Angeles Plantation, Argyle Plantation, Brunswick Plantation, Stewart Plantation, and Stonewell Plantation — have been left off the table; they’re historic estate names, not populated places with any current standing.

ZIP Codes

• 70760 — New Roads (parish seat)
• 70755 — Livonia
• 70759 — Morganza
• 70715 — Batchelor
• 70747 — Innis
• 70749 — Jarreau
• 70753 — Lettsworth
• 70756 — Lottie
• 70762 — Oscar
• 70773 — Rougon

The parish also touches ZIP codes 70729, 70732, 70736, 70752, and 70783, which are centered on post offices in neighboring parishes and cover only the outer edges of Pointe Coupee. Smaller communities without their own post office use the ZIP of the nearest listed town.

Geography

Pointe Coupee Parish sits on the Mississippi River’s west bank, and its land is mostly flat prairie and backswamp, cut by False River — a 10-mile oxbow lake that was once part of the Mississippi’s main channel before the river cut a shorter path and stranded the loop, giving the parish its name. Bayous and batture land line the current Mississippi levee on the parish’s east side.

Pointe Coupee borders Concordia Parish to the north, West Feliciana Parish to the northeast, West Baton Rouge Parish to the east, Iberville Parish to the south, St. Martin Parish to the southwest, St. Landry Parish to the west, and Avoyelles Parish to the northwest.

Demographics

The parish had 20,758 residents at the 2020 census, with New Roads and Livonia its two largest communities. Median household income in Pointe Coupee runs below the Louisiana median of $58,229, reflecting the parish’s rural, agriculture-based economy. Population density works out to roughly 37 people per square mile of land.

Economy & Local Life

Sugar cane is the parish’s signature crop, grown across the fertile bottomland along the Mississippi and False River. Nan Ya Plastics Corporation and an NRG Energy power plant are among the parish’s larger industrial employers, both sited along the river for barge access. New Roads’ False River waterfront and its annual events draw visitors from Baton Rouge, roughly 30 miles east.

History

Pointe Coupee Parish was organized in 1805, one of Louisiana’s original 19 parishes carved out under the Territory of Orleans, and it traces its settlement to French and Spanish colonial land grants along the Mississippi that predate American statehood. The parish takes its name from the French “pointe coupée,” meaning “the place of the cut-off,” describing the river’s abandonment of the loop that became False River. Point Coupee Post, an early French military and trading outpost, stood near the site of present-day New Roads and Morganza by the mid-1700s.

Getting There

U.S. Highway 190 crosses the parish east-west, linking New Roads to Baton Rouge, and Louisiana Highways 1, 10, 15, 77, 78, and 81 connect the parish’s smaller communities.

• Baton Rouge — 30 miles east
• Opelousas — 35 miles west
• Natchez, Mississippi — 45 miles north
• Lafayette — 55 miles southwest

Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport is the nearest commercial airport.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Pointe Coupee Parish?
It’s in south-central Louisiana, on the Mississippi River’s west bank northwest of Baton Rouge.

What is the population of Pointe Coupee Parish?
20,758 people, according to the 2020 census.

How big is Pointe Coupee Parish?
591 square miles (1,530 km2), of which 557 square miles is land and 33 square miles is water.

What is the county seat of Pointe Coupee Parish?
New Roads is the parish seat.

How many towns are in Pointe Coupee Parish?
The parish has one city, two towns, one village, one census-designated place, and about two dozen unincorporated communities.

What ZIP codes are in Pointe Coupee Parish?
Ten ZIP codes are centered inside the parish, led by 70760 (New Roads), 70755 (Livonia), and 70759 (Morganza); several more from neighboring parishes reach its edges.

Why is it called Pointe Coupee?
The name comes from French “pointe coupée” — “the place of the cut-off” — describing how the Mississippi River abandoned a loop that became False River, the oxbow lake at the parish’s center.

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