{"id":4406,"date":"2023-06-22T21:57:52","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T21:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/?p=4406"},"modified":"2026-08-11T21:32:51","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T21:32:51","slug":"saint-landry-parish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/saint-landry-parish\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Landry Parish, Louisiana"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>St. Landry Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States, in the south-central part of the<br \/>\nstate, about 26 miles north of Lafayette. It had a population of 82,540 at the 2020 census, an<br \/>\nestimated 80,765 by 2025, and covers 939 square miles (2,432 km2) centred near 30\u00b036\u2032N 92\u00b000\u2032W.<\/p>\n<p>Opelousas is the parish seat and the parish&#8217;s largest city; its postal code is 70570. The<br \/>\nparish holds 2 cities, 8 incorporated towns, 2 incorporated villages and 3 census-designated<br \/>\nplaces, and it runs on Central Time. Louisiana parishes are divided into wards rather than the<br \/>\ncivil townships used further north, so this profile has no Townships section.<\/p>\n<h2>Towns &amp; Villages in St. Landry Parish<\/h2>\n<p>St. Landry Parish has 15 named places with an official Census Bureau designation: 12<br \/>\nincorporated cities, towns and villages, and 3 unincorporated census-designated places (CDPs).<br \/>\nMany smaller rural localities appear on maps and in local use &mdash; Bristol, Frozard,<br \/>\nPlaisance, Whiteville and others &mdash; but the Census Bureau has never assigned them a<br \/>\npopulation count or formal boundary, so they are not listed in the table below.<\/p>\n<div class=\"tv-table-scroll\">\n<table>\n<thead>\n<tr>\n<th>Place<\/th>\n<th>Type<\/th>\n<th>Pop.<\/th>\n<th>ZIP<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Opelousas<\/td>\n<td>City &middot; seat<\/td>\n<td>15,786<\/td>\n<td>70570<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Eunice<\/td>\n<td>City<\/td>\n<td>9,422<\/td>\n<td>70535<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Sunset<\/td>\n<td>Town<\/td>\n<td>2,909<\/td>\n<td>70584<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Port Barre<\/td>\n<td>Town<\/td>\n<td>1,751<\/td>\n<td>70577<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Lawtell<\/td>\n<td>CDP<\/td>\n<td>1,066<\/td>\n<td>70550<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Arnaudville<\/td>\n<td>Town<\/td>\n<td>1,009<\/td>\n<td>70512<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Leonville<\/td>\n<td>Town<\/td>\n<td>868<\/td>\n<td>70551<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Grand Coteau<\/td>\n<td>Town<\/td>\n<td>776<\/td>\n<td>70541<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Melville<\/td>\n<td>Town<\/td>\n<td>759<\/td>\n<td>71353<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Krotz Springs<\/td>\n<td>Town<\/td>\n<td>904<\/td>\n<td>70750<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Washington<\/td>\n<td>Town<\/td>\n<td>742<\/td>\n<td>70589<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Cankton<\/td>\n<td>Village<\/td>\n<td>583<\/td>\n<td>70584<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Morrow<\/td>\n<td>CDP<\/td>\n<td>149<\/td>\n<td>71356<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Palmetto<\/td>\n<td>Village<\/td>\n<td>92<\/td>\n<td>71358<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Lebeau<\/td>\n<td>CDP<\/td>\n<td>&mdash;<\/td>\n<td>71345<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n<p>Two places on this list cross parish or ZIP boundaries. Eunice&#8217;s citywide population figure<br \/>\nincludes residents in neighboring Acadia and Evangeline parishes, since the city sits across all<br \/>\nthree; most of its area and population, though, is inside St. Landry. Arnaudville is split with<br \/>\nSt. Martin Parish to its southeast, and its 1,009 residents are similarly divided between the two<br \/>\nparishes. Cankton has no ZIP code of its own &mdash; the Postal Service delivers there under<br \/>\nneighboring Sunset&#8217;s 70584 code, and zip-codes.com lists Cankton as an alias name for Sunset<br \/>\nrather than a separate ZIP area. Lebeau was only designated a CDP by the Census Bureau in 2023, so<br \/>\nit has no 2020 population figure to report.<\/p>\n<h2>ZIP Codes<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>70570 &mdash; Opelousas (the parish&#8217;s most populous ZIP)<\/li>\n<li>70535 &mdash; Eunice<\/li>\n<li>70584 &mdash; Sunset (also serves Cankton, listed as an alias name)<\/li>\n<li>70577 &mdash; Port Barre<\/li>\n<li>70550 &mdash; Lawtell<\/li>\n<li>70512 &mdash; Arnaudville<\/li>\n<li>70551 &mdash; Leonville<\/li>\n<li>70541 &mdash; Grand Coteau<\/li>\n<li>71353 &mdash; Melville (also serves the smaller localities of Bayou Current, Bayou Rouge, Elba,<br \/>\nGoodwood and Woodside)<\/li>\n<li>70750 &mdash; Krotz Springs<\/li>\n<li>70589 &mdash; Washington<\/li>\n<li>71356 &mdash; Morrow<\/li>\n<li>71358 &mdash; Palmetto<\/li>\n<li>71345 &mdash; Lebeau<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Every incorporated place and CDP in the parish has its own ZIP except Cankton, which shares<br \/>\nSunset&#8217;s 70584 code.<\/p>\n<h2>Geography<\/h2>\n<p>St. Landry Parish lies in the Acadiana region of south-central Louisiana, on flat to gently<br \/>\nrolling coastal-plain terrain that gives way to prairie in the west and bottomland forest along<br \/>\nits eastern rivers. Of its 939 square miles, 924 are land and 15 are water, about 0.6 percent.<br \/>\nThe Atchafalaya River forms much of the parish&#8217;s eastern edge, passing the towns of Melville<br \/>\nand Krotz Springs, and the Bayou Teche watershed drains the parish&#8217;s southern reaches near<br \/>\nArnaudville and Leonville.<\/p>\n<p>Avoyelles Parish lies to the north, Pointe Coupee Parish to the east, St. Martin Parish to the<br \/>\nsoutheast, Lafayette Parish to the south, Acadia Parish to the southwest, and Evangeline Parish to<br \/>\nthe west and northwest. <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/avoyelles-parish\/\">Avoyelles<br \/>\nParish<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/pointe-coupee-parish\/\">Pointe Coupee Parish<\/a>,<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/saint-martin-parish\/\">St. Martin Parish<\/a>, <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/lafayette-parish\/\">Lafayette Parish<\/a>, <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/acadia-parish\/\">Acadia Parish<\/a> and <a\nhref=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/evangeline-parish\/\">Evangeline Parish<\/a> all border St.<br \/>\nLandry directly.<\/p>\n<h2>Demographics<\/h2>\n<p>St. Landry Parish had a population of 82,540 at the 2020 census, and the latest estimate puts<br \/>\nthe parish near 80,765 residents by 2025, a small decline. Opelousas and Eunice are by far the two<br \/>\nlargest communities, together accounting for roughly a third of the parish&#8217;s population.<br \/>\nPopulation density works out to about 89 people per square mile of land, moderate for a<br \/>\npredominantly rural parish with two mid-sized cities anchoring it. The parish is central to<br \/>\nLouisiana&#8217;s Creole and Cajun culture, reflected in the French-language place names and<br \/>\nchurch parishes that structure much of its rural settlement pattern.<\/p>\n<h2>Economy &amp; Local Life<\/h2>\n<p>Opelousas markets itself as the &#8220;spice capital of the world,&#8221; a nod to Tony<br \/>\nChachere&#8217;s, the Creole seasoning company headquartered there, and the parish&#8217;s<br \/>\nagriculture, oil, manufacturing, wholesale and retail base. Evangeline Downs Racetrack and Casino<br \/>\nin Opelousas employs more than 600 workers, and a Walmart distribution center on the city&#8217;s<br \/>\nedge, opened in 1999, employs another 600-plus full time. Eunice is home to Louisiana State<br \/>\nUniversity Eunice, a two-year public college, and to the Prairie Acadian Cultural Center, part of<br \/>\nthe Jean Lafitte National Historical Park, which anchors the town&#8217;s Cajun-heritage tourism.<br \/>\nThe parish&#8217;s biggest annual event is the Original Southwest Louisiana Zydeco Festival in<br \/>\nOpelousas, held the Saturday before Labor Day each year; Eunice separately hosts a weekly Saturday<br \/>\nnight Cajun music broadcast from the restored Liberty Theatre.<\/p>\n<h2>History<\/h2>\n<p>St. Landry Parish was created on 10 April 1805 as one of Louisiana&#8217;s original county-era<br \/>\ndivisions and was reorganized into a parish under the state&#8217;s 1807 parish system. It takes<br \/>\nits name from St. Landry Catholic Church in Opelousas, itself named for Landericus, a 7th-century<br \/>\nBishop of Paris venerated in the French Catholic tradition that early settlers carried into<br \/>\nLouisiana.<\/p>\n<p>In 1868, during Reconstruction, a wave of racial violence known as the Opelousas Massacre<br \/>\nkilled an estimated 200 to 300 Black residents of the parish over roughly two weeks in<br \/>\nSeptember, one of the deadliest episodes of the Reconstruction era in the United States. The town<br \/>\nof Washington, meanwhile, prospered as a steamboat port through the mid-19th century; after<br \/>\nCaptain George W. Haygood completed a turning basin there in 1848, Washington briefly grew larger<br \/>\nthan Opelousas and ranked as the largest inland port between New Orleans and St. Louis.<\/p>\n<h2>Getting There<\/h2>\n<p>Interstate 49 runs the length of the parish north to south through Opelousas, Sunset and Grand<br \/>\nCoteau. US Highways 71, 167 and 190 also cross the parish, along with Louisiana Highways 10, 13,<br \/>\n29, 31, 35, 91, 93, 103, 107 and 182.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lafayette &mdash; about 26 miles south<\/li>\n<li>Alexandria &mdash; roughly 50 miles north<\/li>\n<li>Baton Rouge &mdash; about 59 miles east<\/li>\n<li>Lake Charles &mdash; roughly 70 miles southwest<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Lafayette Regional Airport, about 26 miles south of Opelousas, is the nearest commercial<br \/>\nairport; Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport, roughly 59 miles east, is the next-closest option.<br \/>\nAmtrak&#8217;s Sunset Limited stops at the Lafayette station, the nearest passenger rail service to<br \/>\nthe parish; freight service inside St. Landry runs on the Union Pacific Railroad and the Acadiana<br \/>\nRailway shortline.<\/p>\n<h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Where is St. Landry Parish located?<\/strong><br \/>\nIt sits in south-central Louisiana&#8217;s Acadiana region, about 26 miles north of Lafayette,<br \/>\nbordered by Avoyelles, Pointe Coupee, St. Martin, Lafayette, Acadia and Evangeline parishes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the population of St. Landry Parish?<\/strong><br \/>\n82,540 at the 2020 census, with a 2025 estimate near 80,765.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How big is St. Landry Parish?<\/strong><br \/>\n939 square miles (2,432 km2) total, of which 924 square miles are land.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the parish seat of St. Landry Parish?<\/strong><br \/>\nOpelousas, the parish&#8217;s largest city, is the parish seat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How many towns and cities are in St. Landry Parish?<\/strong><br \/>\nTwelve incorporated places &mdash; Opelousas, Eunice, Sunset, Port Barre, Arnaudville, Leonville,<br \/>\nGrand Coteau, Melville, Krotz Springs, Washington, Cankton and Palmetto &mdash; plus three<br \/>\ncensus-designated places: Lawtell, Morrow and Lebeau.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What ZIP codes does St. Landry Parish use?<\/strong><br \/>\n70570 for Opelousas, 70535 for Eunice, 70584 for Sunset and Cankton, 70577 for Port Barre, 70550<br \/>\nfor Lawtell, 70512 for Arnaudville, 70551 for Leonville, 70541 for Grand Coteau, 71353 for<br \/>\nMelville, 70750 for Krotz Springs, 70589 for Washington, 71356 for Morrow, 71358 for Palmetto and<br \/>\n71345 for Lebeau.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What is St. Landry Parish known for?<\/strong><br \/>\nIts Creole and Cajun culture, Opelousas&#8217;s title as the &#8220;spice capital of the<br \/>\nworld,&#8221; and Eunice&#8217;s Cajun music scene centered on the Liberty Theatre.<\/p>\n<p>More counties in this state: <a href=\"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/category\/louisiana\/\">Towns<br \/>\nand villages in Louisiana<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>St. Landry Parish is a parish in Louisiana, United States, in the south-central part of the state, about 26 miles north of Lafayette. It had a population of 82,540 at the 2020 census, an estimated 80,765 by 2025, and covers 939 square miles (2,432 km2) centred near 30\u00b036\u2032N 92\u00b000\u2032W. Opelousas is the parish seat and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"Towns & Villages in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana","_seopress_titles_desc":"All 15 towns, villages and CDPs in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana - type, population and ZIP for each, plus Opelousas and Eunice history.","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[6],"class_list":["post-4406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-louisiana","tag-towns-and-cities","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4406"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9696,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4406\/revisions\/9696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/townsvillages.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}