Four Louisiana parishes rank in top 10 in US for population loss in 2022

Four Louisiana parishes ranked in the top 10 in the U.S. in terms of percentage of population lost between 2021 and 2022, according to new Census estimates released Thursday.

St. John the Baptist Parish, Terrebonne Parish and Plaquemines Parish ranked two, three and four, respectively, among U.S. counties that lost residents, the estimates show. St. Charles is eighth. St. John the Baptist lost 5.1%, Terrebonne 3.9%, Plaquemines 3.3% and St. Charles 2.7%.

Hurricane Ida, which struck south Louisiana in August of 2021, hammered all four Louisiana parishes that made the list. 

California’s Lassen County lost the 6% of its population, the highest percentage in the country.  Florida’s Baker and Brandford counties, Mississippi’s Bolivar and Leflore and Bronx County in New York round out the top 10. 

The county that lost the most people overall was Los Angeles County in California, which lost more than 90,700 people, though that is less than 1% of its population of 9.7 million. 

The estimates were published as part of annual estimates of county populations produced by the U.S. Census Bureau.

Whitman County, in Washington, grew the fastest by proportion, gaining 10.1% in population. Five of the top ten growing counties are in Texas: Kaufman, Rockwall, Parker, Comal and Chambers. Two others were in Georgia and one each in Florida and North Carolina.