Baton Rouge (/ˌbætən ˈruːʒ/ BAT-ən ROOZH; from French Bâton-Rouge 'red stick') is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. On the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish. Since 2020, it has been the 99th-most-populous city in the United States and the second-largest city in Louisiana, after New Orleans. It is the 18th-most-populous state capital. At the U.S. Census Bureau's 2020 tabulation, it had a population of 227,470; its consolidated population was 456,781 in 2020. It is the center of the Greater Baton Rouge area, Louisiana's second-largest metropolitan area, with a population of 870,569 as of 2020, up from 802,484 in 2010.