Total population by parish for the New Orleans 7-parish metro

Published: Mar 13, 2025

What is Orleans Parish and what is the New Orleans metro?

Orleans Parish and New Orleans are interchangeable. Their boundaries are the same, and they contain the same population. In 2023, the official definition of the New Orleans metro area changed to exclude St. Tammany, because a smaller portion of workers who live in St. Tammany are commuting to work in Orleans, Jefferson, and other parishes on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain. To learn more about how metro areas are defined and how this change came about read this Research Note.

Total population by parish for the New Orleans metro

Decennial counts 1980-2024

Jefferson Orleans Plaquemines St. Bernard St. Charles St. James St. John the Baptist Metro Area total
Census 1980 454,592 557,515 26,049 64,097 37,259 21,495 31,924 1,192,931
Census 1990 448,306 496,938 25,575 66,631 42,437 20,879 39,996 1,140,762
Census 2000 455,466 484,674 26,757 67,229 48,072 21,216 43,044 1,146,458
Census 2010 432,552 343,829 23,042 35,897 52,780 22,102 45,924 956,126
Census 2020 440,781 383,997 23,515 43,764 52,549 20,192 42,477 1,007,275
Estimate 2021 434,206 377,547 23,312 44,333 52,480 19,796 42,107 993,781
Estimate 2022 427,739 370,473 22,603 44,474 51,038 19,397 39,938 975,662
Estimate 2023 425,657 365,167 22,356 44,645 50,547 19,218 39,615 967,205
Estimate 2024 427,253 362,701 22,289 44,783 50,400 19,110 39,694 966,230

Source: The Data Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau Decennial Census and Population Estimates 2024.