- The state of Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America.
- Total Area: 31st among states, 128,595 sq km (49,651 sq mi).
- Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans.
- Parts of the Mississippi River delta plain near New Orleans lie below sea level.
- Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties.
- Louisiana was named after Louis XIV, King of France from 1643–1715. When René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory drained by the Mississippi River for France, he named it La Louisiane, meaning "Land of Louis".
- Some Louisiana urban environments have a multicultural, multilingual heritage, being so strongly influenced by an admixture of 18th century French, Spanish and African cultures that they are considered to be somewhat exceptional in the U.S.
- More than one-half of the species of birds in North America are resident in Louisiana or spend a portion of their migration there.
- Louisiana is bordered to the west by the state of Texas; to the north by Arkansas; to the east by the state of Mississippi; and to the south by the Gulf of Mexico.
- Louisiana has the greatest concentration of crude oil refineries, natural gas processing plants and petrochemical production facilities in the Western Hemisphere.
- Currently the "de facto administrative languages" of the Louisiana State Government are English and French.
- Because of its many bays and sounds, Louisiana has the longest coastline (15,000 miles) of any state and 41 percent of the nation's wetlands.
Twelve Louisiana facts
