Did Shreveport Just Become the Second Largest City in Louisiana?

For generations, Shreveport has been known as the third largest city in the state of Louisiana. New Orleans has forever been the largest city in the state, and the second has been Louisiana's capital city, Baton Rouge.

...and this is where the 'but' comes in.

Because that order of cities may have changed. Shreveport appears to have jumped up to the second spot on that list. But it wasn't anything that Shreveport did to make it happen. This may have actually happened because of some upset residents in East Baton Rouge Parish.

Back in 2019, voters in Baton Rouge cast their votes to essentially secede from the city of Baton Rouge. They voted on a ballot initiative to incorporate the city of St. George, which would be made up from parts of Baton Rouge and surrounding parts of the Parish. Though this vote was fought in court, the state Supreme Court just upheld the vote of the people, putting St. George on the map.

The city of St. George immediately becomes the 5th largest city in the state of Louisiana with 86,000+ residents. Here's what St. George looks like vs. Baton Rouge on Google Maps...

So where do those 86,000 residents come from? Because that's the hook right now, that's the thing that decides in Shreveport is now the second largest city in the state.

Prior to St. George, the 2020 Census estimate for Baton Rouge was 227,470 residents. In that same Census report, the estimated population of Shreveport was 187,593. Which means that if more than 39,877 of the residents of St. George are coming from the Baton Rouge population, Shreveport would be larger than what Baton Rouge is left with.

That means, as it appears now, Shreveport is set to become the second largest city in Louisiana, without actually doing anything.