West Carroll Parish, Louisiana

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West Carroll Parish, Louisiana
Map
Location in the state of Louisiana
Louisiana's location in the U.S.
Statistics
Founded	1877
Seat	Oak Grove
Largest city	Oak Grove
Area - Total - Land - Water	360 sq mi (933 km²) 359 sq mi (931 km²) 1 sq mi (2 km²), 0.23%
Population - (2000) - Density	12,314 34/sq mi (13/km²)
Time zone	Central: UTC-6/-5
Named for: Charles Carroll of Carrollton

West Carroll Parish (French: Paroisse de Carroll Ouest) is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Oak Grove and as of 2000, the population is 12,314.

West Carroll Parish is nearly 80 percent white in population, while its neighboring East Carroll Parish is 2/3 black. West Carroll tends to vote Republican in competitive elections. In the 2004 presidential race, West Carroll gave the George W. Bush - Richard B. Cheney electors 3,740 votes (74 percent) to 1,231 ballots (24 percent) for the Democratic John Kerry - John Edwards slate.

Dave L. Pearce (1904-1984), the Democratic Louisiana commissioner of agriculture from 1952-1956 and again from 1960-1976, was a native of West Carroll Parish. He was born in Oak Grove.

1 History
2 Geography
3 Demographics
4 Cities and towns
5 See also
6 References

[edit] History

The parish was formed in 1877, when Carroll Parish was split in two.

[edit] Geography

The parish has a total area of 360 square miles (933 km²), of which, 359 square miles (931 km²) of it is land and 1 square miles (2 km²) of it (0.26%) is water.

[edit] Major highways

[edit] Adjacent parishes

[edit] National protected area

Poverty Point National Monument

[edit] Demographics


Census	Pop.		%±
1900	3,685		—
1910	6,249		69.6%
1920	8,857		41.7%
1930	13,895		56.9%
1940	19,252		38.6%
1950	17,248		−10.4%
1960	14,177		−17.8%
1970	13,028		−8.1%
1980	12,922		−0.8%
1990	12,093		−6.4%
2000	12,314		1.8%
Est. 2006	11,732	^[1]	−4.7%
West Carroll Parish Census Data^[2]

As of the census^[3] of 2000, there were 12,314 people, 4,458 households, and 3,249 families residing in the parish. The population density was 34 people per square mile (13/km²). There were 4,980 housing units at an average density of 14 per square mile (5/km²). The racial makeup of the parish was 79.89% White, 18.88% Black or African American, 0.25% Native American, 0.13% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 0.43% from other races, and 0.41% from two or more races. 1.35% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 4,458 households out of which 33.30% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.80% were married couples living together, 12.30% had a female householder with no husband present, and 27.10% were non-families. 24.80% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.80% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.59 and the average family size was 3.09.

In the parish the population was spread out with 25.60% under the age of 18, 9.70% from 18 to 24, 26.50% from 25 to 44, 22.60% from 45 to 64, and 15.50% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females there were 102.10 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 99.50 males.

The median income for a household in the parish was $24,637, and the median income for a family was $31,806. Males had a median income of $28,211 versus $18,477 for females. The per capita income for the parish was $12,302. About 18.20% of families and 23.40% of the population were below the poverty line, including 30.80% of those under age 18 and 22.30% of those age 65 or over.