[3] DeSoto Parish is part of the Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan statistical area.

It is a typical misconception that the parish was named after Hernando de Soto, the Spaniard who explored the future southeastern United States and discovered and named the Mississippi River.

[4] The parish was in fact named after the unrelated Marcel DeSoto, who led the first group of European settlers there, to a settlement historically known as Bayou Pierre.

[7] As of the 2020 United States census, there were 26,812 people, 10,821 households, and 7,254 families residing in the parish.

Approximately 0.8% of the population were foreign-born, and 2.1% spoke a language other than English at home.