New Orleans
Demographics

From the 2010 U.S. census to 2014 census estimates the city grew by 12%, adding an average of more than 10,000 new residents each year following the official decennial census. According to the 2020 United States census, there were 383,997 people, 151,753 households, and 69,370 families residing in the city. Prior to 1960, the population of New Orleans steadily increased to a historic 627,525.

Beginning in 1960, the population decreased due to factors such as the cycles of oil production and tourism, and as suburbanization increased (as with many cities), and jobs migrated to surrounding parishes. This economic and population decline resulted in high levels of poverty in the city; in 1960 it had the fifth-highest poverty rate of all U.S. cities, and was almost twice the national average in 2005, at 24.5%. New Orleans experienced an increase in residential segregation from 1900 to 1980, leaving the disproportionately Black and African American poor in older, low-lying locations. These areas were especially susceptible to flood and storm damage.

The last population estimate before Hurricane Katrina was 454,865, as of July 1, 2005. A population analysis released in August 2007 estimated the population to be 273,000, 60% of the pre-Katrina population and an increase of about 50,000 since July 2006. A September 2007 report by The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, which tracks population based on U.S. Postal Service figures, found that in August 2007, just over 137,000 households received mail. That compares with about 198,000 households in July 2005, representing about 70% of pre-Katrina population. In 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau revised upward its 2008 population estimate for the city, to 336,644 inhabitants. Estimates from 2010 showed that neighborhoods that did not flood were near or even greater than 100% of their pre-Katrina populations.

Katrina displaced 800,000 people, contributing significantly to the decline. Black and African Americans, renters, the elderly, and people with low income were disproportionately affected by Katrina, compared to affluent and White residents. In Katrina's aftermath, city government commissioned groups such as Bring New Orleans Back Commission, the New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilding Plan, the Unified New Orleans Plan, and the Office of Recovery Management to contribute to plans addressing depopulation. Their ideas included shrinking the city's footprint from before the storm, incorporating community voices into development plans, and creating green spaces, some of which incited controversy.

A 2006 study by researchers at Tulane University and the University of California, Berkeley determined that as many as 10,000 to 14,000 undocumented immigrants, many from Mexico, resided in New Orleans. In 2016, the Pew Research Center estimated at least 35,000 undocumented immigrants lived in New Orleans and its metropolitan area. The New Orleans Police Department began a new policy to "no longer cooperate with federal immigration enforcement" beginning on February 28, 2016.

As of 2010, 90.3% of residents age 5 and older spoke English at home as a primary language, while 4.8% spoke Spanish, 1.9% Vietnamese, and 1.1% spoke French. In total, 9.7% population age 5 and older spoke a mother language other than English.
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