125,899 people (2024 Census estimate, −2.9% since 2020)
1,324 square miles of land · 95 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.
22 active community water systems list Rapides Parish in the area they serve, reporting 162,745 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| CITY OF ALEXANDRIA WATER SYSTEM groundwater · local government · LA1079001 | 66,798 served |
| CITY OF PINEVILLE WATER SYSTEM groundwater · local government · LA1079016 | 20,358 served |
| RAPIDES PARISH WATERWORKS DISTRICT 3 surface water · local government · LA1079017 | 19,983 served |
| BUCKEYE WATER DISTRICT 50 groundwater · local government · LA1079004 | 12,078 served |
| RAPIDES ISLAND WATER ASSOCIATION INC groundwater · private · LA1079020 | 5,658 served |
| KOLIN RUBY WISE WATERWORK DISTRICT 11 A groundwater · local government · LA1079023 | 4,992 served |
| TOWN OF WOODWORTH WATER SYSTEM groundwater · local government · LA1079027 | 4,818 served |
| GARDNER COMMUNITY WATER SYSTEM groundwater · private · LA1079010 | 4,566 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 986 people were held in Rapides Parish's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2023), or 1,260 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2018 it was about 1,091.
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 Rapides Parish. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $334 million — $315.4 million to run schools, about $13,720 per student, plus $15 million on buildings and equipment. Money in: $141.1 million local (mostly property tax), $140.9 million state, $68.3 million federal. Long-term debt: $54.3 million.
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 Moderate compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Rapides Parish about $39.6 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.
524 bridges in Rapides Parish: 280 in good condition, 210 fair, and 34 poor (6.5%). “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.
| I0049 over BAYOU CLEAR DIV. CANAL · built 1990 | 24,080 vehicles a day |
| I0049 over B CLEAR DIVERSION CANAL · built 1990 | 11,969 vehicles a day |
| LA1208-1 over HORSESHOE CANAL · built 1975 | 4,442 vehicles a day |
| Donahue Ferry Rd over BAYOU MARIA · built 1993 | 3,220 vehicles a day |
| LA1243 over FLAT BAYOU · built 1980 | 2,861 vehicles a day |
| LA1204 over FLAGON BAYOU · built 1973 | 2,440 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $47.8 million of work in Rapides Parish in fiscal 2025, about $367 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 Rapides 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 Rapides Parish built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Louisiana: the state government and every county in Louisiana.
Nearby counties: Grant Parish (28 mi) · Avoyelles Parish (33 mi) · Evangeline Parish (34 mi) · Vernon Parish (39 mi) · LaSalle Parish (40 mi) · Allen Parish (41 mi).