Louisiana’s climate is subtropical, a natural result of its location on the Gulf of Mexico. As it also lies at the mouth of the vast Mississippi-Missouri river valley, roughly halfway between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, the state is also affected by continental weather patterns. Hot, humid summers, tempered by frequent afternoon thunder showers, alternate with mild winters. Louisiana is subject to tropical storms, and the hurricane season extends for six months, from June through November. Average annual temperatures range from 64 °F (18 °C) in the extreme north of the state to 71 °F (21 °C) at the mouth of the Mississippi River. The highest monthly average is 82 °F (28 °C) in July, and the lowest is 50 °F (10 °C) in January. In summer it is the humidity, rather than the heat, that is one of the more marked characteristics of the state’s subtropical climate. The frost season falls roughly between November 1 in northern Louisiana and December 14 in the extreme southeast. The average growing season ranges from 220 to 320 days and the average precipitation ranges from almost 45 inches (1,140 mm) at Shreveport to more than 56 inches (1,420 mm) at New Orleans.

Plant and animal life

Natural vegetation in Louisiana is found in three major divisions: the first consists of forest, upland pines and hardwoods, bottomland hardwoods, and bald cypress; the second consists of prairie, or dry grassland; and the third consists of marshland, or wet grassland. In the southern half of the state, along a zone running westward from Baton Rouge, live oaks with their characteristic drapings of Spanish moss predominate. The magnolia, whose blossom is the state flower, grows throughout the state.

Muskrats and other fur-bearing rodents, together with alligators, have been trapped in the marshes of southern Louisiana. There is a great variety of birds, native and migrant, but the once-frequent brown pelican (the state bird) has become an endangered species. The gray squirrel, deer, and dove are plentiful. Fish, shrimp, crayfish, crabs, and oysters are a source of food and income in the coastal and swamp areas.

Population composition

As a diversity of landscapes and forms of settlement characterizes the state, its peoples and its cultures also represent many Louisianas. The earliest European settlers were French or Spanish; only later did “les Américains” settle in the northern part of the state and in the Florida Parishes. Each area of settlement preserved a cultural heritage strongly marked by adherence to either Roman Catholic or Protestant faith. The Louisiana French, particularly the descendants of the Acadians (most of whom were French settlers deported by the British from Canada in the 1700s), came to dominate much of southern Louisiana; many of those who arrived to live among them have been assimilated to the local Cajun (etymologically derived from Acadian) way of life. The Cajun French dialect is spoken in many parishes, and throughout southern Louisiana one may hear English spoken with a French accent. In addition, there are a number of cultural islands in both the northern and southern regions of the state. These are made up of Italian, Spanish (Isleños), Hungarian, German, and Dalmatian-Slavonian communities. There are also ethnically mixed settlements.

From the earliest days of the state, African Americans have played an important role. Prior to the mid-20th century, the African American population was concentrated in the areas surrounding the plantations that were sustained by their labour. In contemporary Louisiana, the greater portion of the African American community has chosen to pursue nonagricultural work in urban and suburban areas. Although Louisiana’s African American population has been denied many of the traditional avenues leading to social and economic power, their culture has nevertheless contributed immensely to the life and character of the state and of New Orleans.

Louisiana’s patterns of historical settlements have generated not only a unique Cajun culture but also an ethnically and linguistically distinct Creole culture of mixed French, African American, and Native American heritage. Based on—but distinct from—the French language, the Louisiana Creole language is itself a reflection of the diverse heritage of its speakers. Later migration to and through New Orleans from Europe, Latin America, and Cuba further enriched the state’s ethnic diversity, which has always been greater than that of other states of the Deep South.

Settlement patterns

Northern Louisiana forms a natural region including the northeastern Louisiana delta, the Red River valley, and the northern Louisiana hills. Southern Louisiana, composed of the parish of Avoyelles and all the parishes that lie south of latitude 31° N, has three major subregions: (1) the Florida Parishes in the east, (2) southwestern Louisiana, which contains many Anglo-Saxon Protestants but also has an important French minority, and (3) a region in between, variously known as Cajun country, the river and bayou country, or the sugar bowl.

The earliest settlements in the river and bayou parishes were “line” villages, where farmsteads were each built at the riverfront of a long and narrow lot, with the stream serving as a highway. The line village pattern contrasted with the irregular pattern stemming from the ancient land-division system of metes and bounds used by the Anglo-Saxons of the Florida Parishes. Where the natural levee was wide enough, plantations were established. Before the Civil War, people came to the uplands of northern Louisiana from the eastern states and settled in isolated farmsteads among the pine woods. Southwestern Louisiana was developed after 1880, and its prairies were converted into rice fields. Settlement there resembled a grid system of land division found throughout the interior of the United States.

By the early 21st century southern Louisiana contained nearly three-fourths of the state’s population. A predominantly urban population was achieved for the first time in 1950. Since then the vast majority of Louisianans have been urban dwellers, mostly in the Greater New Orleans area and Baton Rouge, the seat of state government and the centre of the chemical industry. Other urban concentrations are located in Lafayette in the south-central part of the state and at Shreveport in the northwest. Much of northern and western Louisiana is sparsely populated.

Demographic trends

Louisiana has experienced some significant demographic changes in the 20th century. Prior to World War II many African Americans migrated to other states; after the war much of the remaining African American population left Louisiana’s rural farmlands for its urban areas. African Americans now constitute nearly one-third of the state’s residents. Whites (i.e., those of European ancestry) account for nearly two-thirds of the state’s population. A fraction of the populace is Hispanic, and an even smaller segment is of Asian or Pacific Islander descent. The number of foreign-born residents of Louisiana declined over the 20th century, leaving some four-fifths of the population composed of native-born Louisianans. The vast majority of foreign-born residents live within the urbanized parishes of the state, especially in New Orleans.