Frequently Asked Questions

Neighborhood level demographic data

There will be no neighborhood level demographic data available from the Census Bureau until after the 2010 Census. If you need neighborhood demographics, you have the following three options, and you can scroll down to find out more about each one:

1) Our pre–Katrina website, which has Census 2000 data compiled by neighborhood.

2) Census website, which has more Census 2000 data available by census tract and zip code.

3) Use parish level demographic data from 2008. (See Parish level demographic data below).

To access our pre–Katrina website and the Census 2000 data compiled by neighborhood…

Go to our homepage — www.gnocdc.org

Look in the upper right corner and click on the link to “Pre–Katrina Data Center Website.”

Click on the map to zoom in on the area of the city that you are interested in.

Click on the next map to zoom in on the neighborhood that you are interested in.

Select the data table topic that you are interested in from the yellow box labeled “Census 2000 Data Tables.”

If you don’t find the information that you’re looking for on our Pre–Katrina website or you would like the data for a different geography (like census tract or zip code), you can access the Census 2000 data directly from the Census Bureau’s website. Navigating the Census Bureau’s website can be tricky, so we’ve created this guide to help you on your way:

“Guide to Using the Census Website”

If you’re interested in census tract level data, but aren’t sure what census tracts to use, you can use this guide to figure it out:

“Guide to figuring out what census tracts cover the area that you work”

Parish level demographic data

The Census Bureau provides annual demographic information at the parish level for larger parishes through its American Community Survey (ACS).

We’ve made a good deal of demographic info for New Orleans and the metro area available through our “Who lives in the New Orleans and the Metro Area Now?” In this brief, we compare 2000 and 2008 demographic data for the New Orleans area population, including characteristics such as poverty, race, age, immigration status, level of education, and access to vehicles. To access GNOCDC’s analysis and the data …

Go to our homepage – www.gnocdc.org

Look under “Essential Data.”

Click on the link to “Who lives in the New Orleans and the Metro Area Now?”

If you don’t find the ACS data that you’re looking for in our brief and you’re fine with only using the percents, you can access more data directly from the Census Bureau’s website. Navigating the Census Bureau’s website can be tricky, so we’ve created this guide to help you on your way:

“Step-by-step guide to getting 2008 American Community Survey Data.”

Unfortunately, comprehensive crime statistics are difficult to obtain. There are a few partial sources of information including the New Orleans Police Department’s crime maps and Citizen Crime Watch. The New Orleans Police Department’s crime maps can be accessed through the City of New Orleans website. However, there may be some limitations with the City data, according to an analysis of this site completed by Citizen Crime Watch that indicates that as much as one–half of violent crimes may be under–reported on the city’s Web site and the number of rapes isn’t being reported. To access the City’s crime data…

Go to the City’s homepage - www.cityofno.com

Look for the drop down menu labeled “Departments and Agencies” and select “New Orleans Police Department.”

Click on the tab that says “Crime Maps.”

Then, click on the link that says “Click here for crime maps.”

Select “Search by boundary.”

Then, select the boundary type (ie. “Neighborhood”) from the first drop down menu, and select a boundary value (ie. “Central City”) from the second drop down menu.

This will bring you to a crime map page that shows crimes within your boundary. You can search for various dates and various types of crime.

Another source of crime data, is Citizen Crime Watch. They publish data based on information scraped from NOLA.com’s incident report pages. To access this data…

Go to the Citizen Crime Watch website – www.citizencrimewatch.org

You can search the Citizen Crime Watch map by neighborhood and date. It can sometimes take a long time or fail to load if you select a date range longer than 30 days so keep that in mind.

The Louisiana Department of Education publishes data on dropout rates for 7th through 12th grades by school and by district. To access this data…

Go to the Louisiana Department of Education website – www.louisianaschools.net

Go to the drop down menu under “Most requested information,” and select “Data and reports.”

Click on the link to “Dropout Numbers and Percents.”

Download the spreadsheet or PDF for the 2006–07 school year for the most recent dropout rates for Orleans Parish.

Note that Recovery School District schools and independent charter schools, many of which are in Orleans Parish but are not part of the Orleans Parish school district, are listed at the end of the report.

Generating estimates of the homeless and collecting additional data about their demographics and needs is very difficult. The best resource for this information is an organization called Unity for the Homeless. To access this data…

Go to the Unity for the Homeless website – www.unitygno.org

Click on “Publications” in the left–hand column.

That will bring you to a list of publications, including the “Findings from the Claiborne Encampment Survey” (Feb 2008).

Unfortunately, there is no official, current and comprehensive source of information about displaced New Orleanians.

FEMA is the most comprehensive source of information about the number of people displaced. However, their data is not entirely current because, after people stop being eligible for benefits, they have no motivation to advise FEMA of any change of address. Nonetheless, it is official data and may be helpful to you. To access this data…

Go to FEMA’s most recent information – www.fema.gov/hazard/hurricane/2005katrina/statistics.shtm

Look under “Individual Assistance– Current Applicant Location”

For number of evacuees in each city, look at “Applicant Location by Metro Area”

If you want to see a map by state, look at “Applicant Location by State”

The US Department of Education was tracking displaced students, but only during the 2005-2006 school year — so this data is no longer current. To access this data…

Go to – www.hurricanehelpforschools.gov/proginfo/

Download the excel spreadsheet called “Final Emergency Impact Aid Student Counts and Payments.”

At the bottom of the spreadsheet, click on the second tab called “Child counts.”

In August 2007, the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps put out a research brief entitled “Where Did They Go and Are They Coming Back? An analysis of displaced Louisianans living in other states.” While it’s not based on a scientific study, the survey data behind this brief does give insight into the demographics of displaced residents, where they lived in 2007, and whether or not they planned to returned. To access this brief…

Go to — www.recoverycorps.org/media/files/WhereDidTheyGo.pdf

Because there is so little scientific data available on displaced residents, RAND researchers fielded a pilot survey in the fall of 2006, and now have a full–scale survey underway. You can read more about their initial findings and some of the challenges they’ve face in gathering this data, in their brief entitled “How Fare the Displaced and Returned Residents of New Orleans? Results of an Innovative Pilot Survey.” To access this brief…

Go to — www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/2010/RAND_RB9500.pdf

It is very difficult to determine the number of Latinos who have moved to New Orleans since Katrina. Since the storm, most of us have noticed more Latinos in our city.

The Census Bureau’s 2008 American Community Survey data indicates that there has been a significant increase in Latinos in our area since 2000. This is despite the fact that many undocumented and documented migrants do not feel comfortable responding to surveys and are not likely to be represented in the Census Bureau numbers. To access GNOCDC's analysis and this data …

Go to our homepage — www.gnocdc.org

Look under “Essential Data.”

Click on the link to “Who lives in the New Orleans and the Metro Area Now?”

Researchers interested in this population have succeeded in interviewing a limited number of Latinos in the New Orleans area. And although these studies cannot give us an estimate of the number of Latinos in our community, they can tell us a bit about them, for example, their marital status, the type of housing they live in, their average wages, their health risks, etc.

If you are working with Latino populations and you want data to demonstrate needs within this community, you may find these reports helpful:

Mexican Mobile Consulate Survey. Kenner, Louisiana.
May 18-19, 2007.
Fussell, Elizabeth. Washington State University & Tulane University.
Download the PDF.

Brazilian Mobile Consulate Survey. New Orleans, Louisiana.
June 22-23, 2007.
Fussell, Elizabeth. Washington State University & Tulane University.
Download the PDF.

In August of 2010, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, published “New Orleans Five Years After the Storm: A New Disaster Amid Recovery,” a report containing the results of a survey they conducted earlier in the year. According to this report, “…the survey suggests that nine in ten (91 percent) people now living in the parish lived the city at the time of Katrina. About one in ten, however are newcomers, a group that stands out as being substantially younger, more educated, more likely to be white and more likely to be renting…” To access more details about these newcomers and other survey data about residents’ opinions and concerns…

Go to — www.kff.org/kaiserpolls/8089.cfm