Hurricane Katrina’s Effect on New Orleans’ Population and Demographics

Hurricane Katrina had a huge impact on the population of New Orleans. Thousands lost home and business and decided to move out of our City. Ten years later and we are a fast growing city (ranking 16m fastest from 2010 to 20131. Along with the population increasing, we have also seen a change in the demographics of our city. In the aftermath of Katrina we saw the cities' population go from 484,674 to 230,1722, a decrease of 47.5%. Those areas damaged were made up of 75% African-Americans. 52.8% of housing affected was being occupied by renters. About 10.4% of those affected were unemployed at the time.3 All of these factors played into African- Americans staying permanently in the cities they evacuated to.

The city of Houston estimated that anywhere from 150,000 to 250,000 evacuees were living there as of 2011.4 Ten years later the population is back up to 361,967 people. If the next ten years sees the growth rate stay this high, the population will be almost 500,000 people. This may not be completely realistic as chnterresearch.org/reports_analysis/neighborhood- growth-rates-growth-continues-through-2014-in-new-orleans- neighborhoods/ iZrnhptgrc):t///www.datacenterresearch.org/data-resources/katrina/facts-for— 3 http://www.s4.brown.edu/Katrina/report.pdf 4 http://wwwcnncom/20ll/US/OB/lZ/katrina.houston/

a large percentage of this growth may be attributed to evacuees returning to New Orleans. That being said, the Hipic population is now 20,849 compared to 14,826 pre-Katrina. If this demographic continues to rise then 500,000 is definitely possible. Another possible hurdle to growth is the fact that as of 2009 over 44,200 housing units were deemed uninhabitable.

Order custom essay Hurricane Katrina’s Effect on New Orleans’ Population and Demographics with free plagiarism report

450+ experts on 30 subjects Starting from 3 hours delivery

Get Essay Help

These units need to be demolished in order for the revitalization of our city to continue. Another demographic that has actually increased since Katrina is the cities' elderly, specifically those over 60. If we wish to retain all of these senior citizens, it would be expedient that we have adequate hospitals and assisted living centers. Another important demographic is one- person households which make up 42% of our city, up from 32% pre- Katrina. Most of the people only require smaller living spaces so it is necessary that we have enough apartments.

An encouraging statistic shows that 45% of homeowners have paid off their house, suggesting that they are here to stay. This is 9% higher than the national average. One foreboding stat is that only 21% of households have children under 18, 9% lower that it was pre—Katrina. It is necessary that we advertise New Orleans as a place where people can raise families. This can be done by putting more money in schools and parks. New Orleans has done well to recover since Hurricane Katrina and is primed to continue on that path. It is important to appeal to the 5 https://www.censusgov/newsroom/releases/archives/housing/cbll- 28.htm| growing populations of the elderly and the one-person households. That being said, focus needs to be put on making the city more appealing to families. If the percentage of children continues to decrease, our population will decrease with it.

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

Check my essay Hire Writer