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PELICAN STATE AREA: 123,675 sq km (47,751 sq mi). POPULATION: 4,315,000. CAPITAL: Baton Rouge, pop. 224,700. ECONOMY: Industry: chemical products, petroleum and coal products, food processing, transportation equipment, paper products, tourism. Agriculture: seafood, cotton, soybeans, cattle, sugarcane, poultry and eggs, dairy products, rice. PCI: $17,650. Admission: 1812 as 18th state.
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The 1980s petroleum slump took a heavy toll, offset in part by a lucrative seafood industry. Louisiana leads the U.S. in salt production. Petrochemical plants line the Mississippi from New Orleans—the country’s busiest port—to Baton Rouge, and huge amounts of toxins are discharged into area waters. Another environmental challenge is to slow the loss of marshes—40 percent of the nation’s coastal wetlands.
Vibrant New Orleans preserves its Creole heritage in the architecture and foods of the French Quarter. In Lafayette, the heart of Cajun country, descendants of Acadians expelled from eastern Canada in the mid-18th century still speak French.
Text source: National Geographic Atlas of the World Revised Sixth Edition, 1995
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