(The Center Square) – Before Hurricane Katrina ravaged the coast, the New Orleans population was about 460,000. Twenty years later, the city has dropped to about 380,000 as it continues to rebuild.
Katrina still ranks as one of the deadliest and costliest storms to hit the United States in history. With more than 1 million displaced and 1,833 deaths, the population in New Orleans was severely impacted by the natural disaster.
“The city suffered moderate damage from the hurricane itself, but enormous damage from extensive flooding caused by breaks in several levees,” said Narayan Sastry within a pilot study of displaced New Orleans residents after Katrina. “The population of New Orleans was reduced to fewer than several thousand people by the end of the first week of September 2005.”
A report by Data Commons, sourced from Census.gov, shows that the city’s population was around 455,000 to 462,000 between 2004 and 2005, before Katrina struck. In 2006, that number dropped drastically to 209,000.
To this day, New Orleans has not regained its pre-Katrina population numbers. The most recent report shows that in 2024, the city reported 363,000 people, nearly 100,000 fewer. The Lower Ninth Ward and others are among the many areas still seeing the effects of population decline since the storm’s destruction.
The U.S. Census in 2020 gave the city a population of more than 383,000. It’s estimated just below that more recently in 2022 and 2024.
The city’s peak population since 2005 was just before COVID-19 made its way to the United States. In 2018, New Orleans reported 392,000 in population, but that number has continued to steadily drop since the city was hit by the pandemic.
With population loss, especially after a natural disaster, come other areas of loss for the city, including tax dollars, funding, loss of businesses and school enrollment.
The number of people employed is lower than it was before Katrina hit. In 2005, the city had 186,000 people employed, and dropped to 93,500 after Katrina. Roughly 169,000 people were employed in New Orleans as of this year, a 17,000 difference in employment numbers over the last 20 years.
As the city continues to increase these numbers, there are still fewer people employed in 2025 than before the storm.
