List of Parishes in Louisiana

List Of Parishes In Louisiana

The U.S. state of Louisiana is divided into 64 parishes in the same way that 48 of the other states of the United States are divided into counties. Alaska is the other exception, which is divided into boroughs and census areas instead.

Forty-one parishes are governed by a council called the Police Jury. The other twenty-three have various other forms of government, including: president-council, council-manager, parish commission, and consolidated parish/city.

Louisiana was formed from French and Spanish colonies, which were both officially Roman Catholic. Local government was based upon parishes, as the local ecclesiastical division (French: paroisse or Spanish: parroquia). Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the Territorial Legislative Council divided the Territory of Orleans (the predecessor of Louisiana state) into twelve counties. The borders of these counties were poorly defined, but they roughly coincided with the colonial parishes, and hence used the same names.

On March 31, 1807, the territorial legislature divided the state into 19 parishes without abolishing the old counties (which continued to exist until 1845).

In 1811, a constitutional convention was held to prepare for Louisiana's admission into the Union. This organized the state into seven judicial districts, each consisting of groups of parishes. In 1816, the first official map of the state used the term, as did the 1845 constitution. Since then, the official term for Louisiana's primary civil divisions has been parishes.