Census Shows Fewer Citizens In New Orleans

By Eileen Fleming

New Orleans, La. – Just under 344-thousand people live in New Orleans. That's down about 11-thousand from estimates.
Allison Plyer of the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center says Census numbers gathered in a door-to-door drive last year are considered the gold standard for tracking population. Those numbers show a city still coming back from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the region shrinking 11 percent.

"The population of the metro area is now the same size it was in 1970. And that's really pretty significant because the population of a metro area is really reflective of the strength of the economy."

And the population that is here, is heading north.

"What we're seeing is some shifting of the population away from the coastal areas and the more vulnerable areas and upriver and to the northshore."

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu says the city's recovery still continues at what he calls "a full gallop," with billions of dollars set for investment.
For WWNO, I'm Eileen Fleming