The Alexandria Metropolitan Statistical Area is a

metropolitan area A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban area, urban agglomeration and its surrounding territories which share Industry (economics), industries, commercial areas, Transport infrastructure, transport network ...

in central

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

that covers two parishes – Rapides and Grant. As of the 2020 census, the MSA had a population of 152,192 (though a July 1, 2023 estimate placed the population at 148,171).

History

The Alexandria metropolitan area was first defined in 1973. Then known as the Alexandria Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (Alexandria SMSA), it consisted of two parishes - Rapides and Grant - and had a population of 131,749. By the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

, the population had grown to 151,985, a 15% increase over the previous census. In 1983, the official name was shortened to the Alexandria Metropolitan Statistical Area (Alexandria MSA), which is still in use to date. That same year, Grant Parish was removed from the MSA, leaving only Rapides Parish. A total of 135,282 people lived in Rapides Parish in 1980. That number had declined to 131,556 by

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

and 126,337 in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

. Grant Parish was again added to the Alexandria MSA in 2003.

Parishes

* Rapides * Grant

Communities

Cities

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

(Principal city) * Pineville

Towns

Ball A ball is a round object (usually spherical, but sometimes ovoid) with several uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for s ...

* Boyce * Cheneyville * Colfax * Glenmora * Lecompte * Montgomery *

Pollock Pollock or pollack (pronounced ) is the common name used for either of the two species of North Atlantic ocean, marine fish in the genus ''Pollachius''. ''Pollachius pollachius'' is referred to as "pollock" in North America, Ireland and the Unit ...

* Woodworth

Villages

* Creola * Dry Prong * Forest Hill * Georgetown * McNary

Unincorporated areas

Census-designated places

* Deville *

Echo In audio signal processing and acoustics, an echo is a reflection of sound that arrives at the listener with a delay after the direct sound. The delay is directly proportional to the distance of the reflecting surface from the source and the lis ...

* Prospect * Rock Hill

Other communities

* Gardner * Libuse * Tioga

Demographics

As of the

of 2000, there were 153,922 people, 56,193 households, and 40,083 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 68.95%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 24.04%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 1.56% Native American, 1.27% Asian, 0.13%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.82% from other races, and 1.25% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 6.35% of the population. The median income for a household in the MSA was $29,739, and the median income for a family was $35,775. Males had a median income of $30,505 versus $20,477 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the MSA was $15,249.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandria, Louisiana Metropolitan Area Geography of Rapides Parish, Louisiana Geography of Grant Parish, Louisiana