SHRINKING NEW ORLEANS: POST-KATRINA POPULATION ADJUSTMENTS

The flooding caused by hurricane Katrina in 2005 acted as a catalyst for an abrupt change of the demographic landscape of the New Orleans metropolitan area. New Orleans city proper has been a shrinking city for the last half century, but its population loss was balanced by expanding suburbs until 2005. Based on a comparison of the newly released 2010 census data with the 2000 data, this paper discusses the major population adjustments that have resulted from the disaster. Hurricane Katrina has caused the entire metropolitan area to shrink much faster than previous declines. Five years after the storm, New Orleans displays some limited signs of resilience, although the storm seems to have accelerated its population decline. Furthermore, a close examination of the available data shows us that Katrina has provoked a major change in the city's ethnic landscape.