New Orleans shrank 29 percent in a decade

Still suffering after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has probably dropped off the list of America's 50 largest cities.

The 2010 US Census figures for New Orleans are out, and they offer the Crescent City little cheer.

The New York Times reports:

"The Census Bureau reported on Thursday that 343,829 people were living in the city of New Orleans on April 1, 2010, four years and seven months after it was virtually emptied by the floodwaters that followed the hurricane.

"The numbers portray a significantly smaller city than in the previous census, in 2000, though it should be said that New Orleans had been steadily shrinking even then. In 1990, it was the 24th-biggest city in the country, in 2000, the 31st, and now it has surely dropped from the top 50.

"The latest figure is lower than estimates cited widely by many here in recent months. It is lower, by roughly 10,000, than the official census estimate in the summer of 2009."

The report continues:

"According to Andrew A. Beveridge, a Queens College sociologist who analyzed the census results for The New York Times, the city has roughly 24,000 fewer white residents than it did 10 years ago, though the proportion of the white population has grown to 30 percent.

"The city has 118,000 fewer black residents. New Orleans, once more than two-thirds black, is now less than 60 percent black.

"There are 56,193 fewer children, a drop of nearly 44 percent."

"St. Tammany Parish, a suburban refuge for many New Orleanians after the storm, grew by nearly a quarter. St. Bernard Parish, which is downriver from the city and was almost completely overwhelmed by the floodwaters, shrank by nearly half."