362,701 people (2024 Census estimate, −5.4% since 2020)
170 square miles of land · 2,140 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
2 active community water systems list Orleans Parish in the area they serve, reporting 387,688 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| NEW ORLEANS CARROLLTON WATER WORKS surface water · local government · LA1071009 | 334,903 served |
| NEW ORLEANS ALGIERS WATER WORKS surface water · local government · LA1071001 | 52,785 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 1,112 people were held in Orleans Parish's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2023), or 464 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2018 it was about 1,553.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
1 school district has its office in Orleans Parish. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $644.2 million — $81.6 million to run schools, about $39,996 per student, plus $12.6 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $441.9 million local (mostly property tax), $235.2 million state, $46.8 million federal. Long-term debt: $950,000.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Relatively High compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Orleans Parish about $304.1 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Very High; social vulnerability: Relatively High.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
381 bridges in Orleans Parish: 164 in good condition, 176 fair, and 41 poor (10.8%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
| US0090-B over MISSISSIPPI RIVER · built 1985 | 154,311 vehicles a day |
| I0010 over SERVICE RD & UPT R/R · built 1960 | 154,311 vehicles a day |
| I0010 over I-610 & I-10 · built 1963 | 49,634 vehicles a day |
| LA0039 over INNER HARBOR NAV CANAL · built 1957 | 47,739 vehicles a day |
| Palmetto St OnRamp over KCS RR · built 1960 | 47,738 vehicles a day |
| LA0039 over N O P B RR(CLAIBORNE AVE · built 1949 | 36,993 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $492.5 million of work in Orleans Parish in fiscal 2025, about $1,283 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for Louisiana are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Orleans Parish come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Orleans Parish built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Louisiana: the state government and every county in Louisiana.
Nearby counties: St. Tammany Parish (25 mi) · St. Charles Parish (27 mi) · St. John the Baptist Parish (34 mi) · Hancock County, MS (36 mi) · Jefferson Parish (38 mi) · St. Bernard Parish (41 mi).