What Census 2010 Reveals about Population and Housing in New Orleans and the Metro Area

Allison Plyer

Published: Mar 17, 2011

New Orleans is now a smaller city, having lost 118,526 African Americans and 24,101 whites since 2000, while gaining 3,225 Hispanics. Indeed the entire seven–parish metro area is more diverse with an influx of fully 33,500 Hispanics, and 3,000 additional Asian residents. Housing units have decreased in the most heavily flood–damaged parishes and increased in outlying parishes, while vacant housing units have increased in every parish across the metro. Children under 18 were among the least likely to return after Katrina, representing only 23 percent of the total metro population, down from 27 percent in 2000.