St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana

St. Bernard Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States, immediately east of New Orleans,
sharing a border with the city’s Lower Ninth Ward. It had a population of 43,764 at the
2020 census, an estimated 44,419 by 2024, and covers 378 square miles (980 km2) of land, centred
near 29°53′N 89°21′W.

Chalmette is the parish seat and largest community; its postal code is 70043. St. Bernard
Parish has never incorporated a city or town — every place here is unincorporated,
including 6 census-designated places and 8 smaller unincorporated communities, and it runs on
Central Time. Its FIPS code is 22087.

Towns & Villages in St. Bernard Parish

St. Bernard Parish has 14 named places on record: 6 census-designated places (CDPs) recognised
by the Census Bureau and 8 unincorporated communities with no CDP boundary of their own. CDP
stands for census designated place; Unincorp. covers settlements with no formal boundary and no
separate population count.

The old version of this page listed Delacroix twice and treated private subdivisions and
mobile-home parks — Chalmette MH Park, Dauterive Trailer Park, Angelique Estates and
similar — as if they were separate towns. Those are residential developments inside
Chalmette, Meraux or Violet, not distinct places, and have been dropped. Hopedale carries the
Isleño name La Chinche, and Reggio is locally called Bencheque, from the parish’s Canary
Islander settlement history.

ZIP Codes

• 70043 — Chalmette (the parish’s most populous ZIP)
• 70044 — Chalmette (PO box only)
• 70032 — Arabi
• 70075 — Meraux
• 70092 — Violet
• 70085 — Saint Bernard (covers the lower parish: Poydras, Delacroix, Caernarvon,
  Hopedale, Reggio, Shell Beach, Versailles, Verret and Yscloskey)

The 70085 ZIP spans roughly 188 square miles of the lower, rural parish and has no single post
office town of its own — mail for its nine communities is sorted under the Saint Bernard
postal name rather than each settlement’s local name.

Geography

St. Bernard Parish sits in southeastern Louisiana’s deltaic marsh, immediately downriver
of New Orleans. Of its 2,158 square miles, only 378 are land; the remaining 1,781 square miles,
83 percent of the parish, are open water and marsh — the highest water share of any Louisiana
parish. Lake Borgne bounds the parish to the north, and the Chandeleur Islands and Chandeleur
Sound lie along its Gulf of Mexico shore to the east. The Mississippi River–Gulf Outlet
Canal, closed to navigation in 2009 after channelling Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge into
the parish, still cuts through the lower parish toward Lake Borgne.

Orleans Parish borders St. Bernard to the northwest, St. Tammany Parish lies across Lake Borgne
to the north, and Plaquemines Parish borders it to the south. Orleans Parish, St. Tammany Parish and Plaquemines Parish all border St.
Bernard directly or across water.

Demographics

St. Bernard Parish had a population of 43,764 at the 2020 census, up from 35,897 in 2010, and
the latest estimate puts the parish near 44,419 residents in 2024. Chalmette and Meraux are the
two largest communities, together holding well over half the parish’s population. Median
household income runs $58,651 (Data USA, 2024 estimate), close to Louisiana’s statewide
figure of $58,229 (2023 ACS). Population density works out to roughly 118 people per square mile
of land.

Economy & Local Life

Retail trade employs the most workers in the parish, about 2,416 people, followed by health
care and social assistance at 2,077 and construction at 1,932. ExxonMobil’s Chalmette
Refining plant is the parish’s largest industrial employer, and the Domino Sugar refinery in
Arabi, one of the oldest sugar refineries in the country, anchors employment on the parish’s
upriver edge. St. Bernard Parish Public Schools and Nunez Community College, a two-year college in
Chalmette, are the parish’s largest public employers. The National Park Service holds an
annual commemoration each January at Chalmette Battlefield, marking the anniversary of the 1815
Battle of New Orleans.

History

Louisiana’s territorial legislature authorised St. Bernard Parish on 31 March 1807. It
was named for Saint Bernard, patron saint of colonial governor Bernardo de Gálvez, and the name
was already in use in Spanish colonial documents before the parish’s formal creation. Canary
Islanders, known locally as Isleños, settled the lower parish under Spanish rule in the late
1700s, founding communities including Reggio and Hopedale; their descendants’ dialect and
traditions survive there today.

Andrew Jackson’s American forces defeated a British invasion force at Chalmette on 8
January 1815, in the decisive land battle of the War of 1812 fought after the peace treaty had
already been signed in Europe. The battlefield is preserved as part of Jean Lafitte National
Historical Park. On 29 August 2005, Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge overtopped the
parish’s levees along the Mississippi River–Gulf Outlet and flooded nearly every home
in the parish, driving the population from 67,229 in 2000 down to 35,897 by 2010. St. Bernard was
Louisiana’s fastest-growing parish from 2010 to 2020 as residents rebuilt.

Getting There

No interstate highway crosses St. Bernard Parish. Louisiana Highways 39, 46, 47, 300 and 1245
carry through-traffic, with LA 46 (St. Bernard Highway) running the length of the parish along the
Mississippi River’s east bank.

• New Orleans (French Quarter) — about 6 miles west
• Belle Chasse — about 7 miles southwest, across the Mississippi River in Plaquemines Parish
• Metairie — about 12 miles west
• Slidell — about 25 miles north, across Lake Borgne in St. Tammany Parish

Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, about 18 miles west of Chalmette, is the
nearest major commercial airport. Amtrak’s New Orleans Union Passenger Terminal, serving the
Crescent, City of New Orleans and Sunset Limited lines, is the nearest station.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is St. Bernard Parish located?
It sits in southeastern Louisiana immediately east of New Orleans, bordered by Orleans, St.
Tammany and Plaquemines parishes.

What is the population of St. Bernard Parish?
43,764 at the 2020 census, with a 2024 estimate near 44,419.

How big is St. Bernard Parish?
378 square miles (980 km2) of land, plus 1,781 square miles of water — a total of 2,158
square miles, 83 percent of it open water and marsh.

What is the parish seat of St. Bernard Parish?
Chalmette, the parish’s largest community, though like every place in the parish it has
never incorporated as a city.

How many towns and villages are in St. Bernard Parish?
Six census-designated places — Chalmette, Meraux, Violet, Arabi, Poydras and Delacroix
— plus eight unincorporated communities: Saint Bernard, Caernarvon, Hopedale, Reggio, Shell
Beach, Versailles, Verret and Yscloskey.

What ZIP codes does St. Bernard Parish use?
70043 and 70044 for Chalmette, 70032 for Arabi, 70075 for Meraux, 70092 for Violet, and 70085 for
the lower parish’s nine smaller communities.

What is St. Bernard Parish known for?
The Chalmette Battlefield, site of the 1815 Battle of New Orleans, and its Isleño (Canary
Islander) communities in the lower parish.

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