3,844 people (2024 Census estimate, −6.4% since 2020)
603 square miles of land · 6 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.
5 active community water systems list Tensas Parish in the area they serve, reporting 8,336 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| TENSAS WATER DISTRICT ASSOCIATION surface water · private · LA1107009 | 3,843 served |
| TOWN OF ST JOSEPH WATER SYSTEM groundwater · local government · LA1107004 | 1,332 served |
| LAKE BRUIN WATER DISTRICT #1 buys surface water · local government · LA1107001 | 1,275 served |
| TOWN OF NEWELLTON WATER SYSTEM surface water · local government · LA1107003 | 1,100 served |
| VILLAGE OF WATERPROOF WATER SYSTEM buys surface water · local government · LA1107005 | 786 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 497 people were held in Tensas Parish's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2023), or 24,185 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2014 it was about 16.
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 Tensas Parish. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $9.1 million — $8 million to run schools, about $23,112 per student, plus $723,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $3.7 million local (mostly property tax), $2.3 million state, $3.7 million federal. Long-term debt: $133,000.
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: Very Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Tensas Parish about $3.6 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively Low; social vulnerability: Very High.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
52 bridges in Tensas Parish: 30 in good condition, 20 fair, and 2 poor (3.8%). “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.
| LA0604 over CREEK · built 1962 | 1,151 vehicles a day |
| LA0887 over BLACK RIVER BAYOU · built 1970 | 58 vehicles a day |
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $2.2 million of work in Tensas Parish in fiscal 2025, about $540 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 Tensas 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 Tensas Parish built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Louisiana: the state government and every county in Louisiana.
Nearby counties: Franklin Parish (22 mi) · Madison Parish (25 mi) · Claiborne County, MS (25 mi) · Jefferson County, MS (25 mi) · Adams County, MS (36 mi) · Richland Parish (37 mi).