Census outlines face of today's New Orleans

Hurricane Katrina drained the New Orleans metropolitan area of almost 40% of its residents and left the region with a whiter, wealthier and older population, according to the first Census Bureau estimates since the devastating flooding.
The special survey released today shows the New Orleans area, made up of seven parishes, became 73% white in the months after the hurricane Aug. 29, up from about 59% before the storm. The black population dropped from about 37% to 22%. The median age increased by about four years, and the median annual income rose from $39,793 to $43,447.

"This confirms what some people thought: There was a selective out-migration of poorer minorities," says William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution.

from USA Today

from the NY Times

from the Times Picayune