De Soto Parish, Louisiana

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

De Soto Parish, Louisiana
Map
Location in the state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location in the U.S.
Statistics
Founded	1843
Seat	Mansfield
Largest city	Mansfield
Area - Total - Land - Water	894 sq mi (2,317 km²) 877 sq mi (2,272 km²) 17 sq mi (45 km²), 1.93%
Population - (2000) - Density	25,494 29/sq mi (11/km²)
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Named for: Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto

De Soto Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is part of the Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana Metropolitan Statistical Area. Its seat is Mansfield. In the 2000 census, the parish population was 25,494.

The parish is named for Hernando de Soto, the Spaniard who explored the future southeastern United States and discovered and named the Mississippi River.

1 Geography
- 1.1 Major highways
- 1.2 Adjacent parishes
2 Demographics
3 Notable residents
4 Cities and towns
5 See also
6 References

[edit] Geography

The parish has a total area of 894 square miles (2,317 km²), of which, 877 square miles (2,272 km²) of it is land and 17 square miles (45 km²) of it (1.93%) is water.

[edit] Major highways

[edit] Adjacent parishes

Caddo Parish (north)
Red River Parish (east)
Natchitoches Parish (southeast)
Sabine Parish (south)
Shelby County, Texas (southwest)
Panola County, Texas (west)

[edit] Demographics

As of the census^[1] of 2000, there were 25,494 people, 9,691 households, and 6,967 families residing in the parish. The population density was 29 people per square mile (11/km²). There were 11,204 housing units at an average density of 13 per square mile (5/km²). The racial makeup of the parish was 55.97% White, 42.16% Black or African American, 0.51% Native American, 0.11% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.54% from other races, and 0.66% from two or more races. 1.55% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.


Census	Pop.		%±
1900	25,063		—
1910	27,689		10.5%
1920	29,376		6.1%
1930	31,016		5.6%
1940	31,803		2.5%
1950	24,398		−23.3%
1960	24,248		−0.6%
1970	22,764		−6.1%
1980	25,727		13%
1990	25,346		−1.5%
2000	25,494		0.6%
Est. 2006	26,390	^[2]	3.5%
De Soto Parish Census Data^[3]

There were 9,691 households out of which 33.50% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 48.70% were married couples living together, 18.60% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28.10% were non-families. 25.40% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.60% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.60 and the average family size was 3.11.

In the parish the population was spread out with 28.40% under the age of 18, 8.30% from 18 to 24, 26.30% from 25 to 44, 23.00% from 45 to 64, and 14.10% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 36 years. For every 100 females there were 90.80 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 87.00 males.

The median income for a household in the parish was $28,252, and the median income for a family was $33,196. Males had a median income of $30,780 versus $20,182 for females. The per capita income for the parish was $13,606. About 21.00% of families and 25.10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 33.80% of those under age 18 and 24.90% of those age 65 or over.

[edit] Notable residents

Vida Blue (born 1949), professional baseball player
Richard Burford (born 1946), incoming Republican member of the Louisiana House of Representatives from District 7 (De Soto and Caddo parishes
Dennis Freeman (1940-2007), mayor of Logansport from 1984-2007.
Sammy Joe Odom (1941-2001), professional American football player and secretary-treasurer of the De Soto Parish Police Jury, the parish governing body