New Orleans metropolitan area


New Orleans–Metairie Metropolitan Statistical Area, or the Greater New Orleans Region, is a metropolitan area designated by the United States Census encompassing eight parishes in the state of Louisiana, centering on the city of New Orleans.
The U.S. Census Bureau estimates 1,275,762 people were living in the New Orleans Metropolitan Statistical area in July 2017, up 7.2 percent from 2010. According to 2017 census estimates, the New Orleans–Metairie–Hammond combined statistical area had a population of 1,510,562.
The metropolitan area was hit by Hurricane Katrina – once a Category 5 hurricane, but a Category 3 storm at landfall – on August 29, 2005. Within the city of New Orleans proper, multiple breaches and structural failures occurred in the system of levees and flood walls designed under Federal government auspices.
The resulting decline in the city's population negatively impacted population numbers for the entire metro area, for which a population of 1.3 million was recorded in the 2000 Census. Most of the decline in population is accounted for by the decline experienced in the city of New Orleans proper ; the Census Bureau estimates that the city's population dropped from 453,728 prior to the storm to 393,292, the estimate for 2017.

Definitions

The New Orleans–Metairie–Bogalusa Combined Statistical Area is made up of ten parishes. The CSA includes two metropolitan areas and one micropolitan area.

Components

For U.S. Census purposes, the New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner MSA includes eight parishes: Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. James, St. John the Baptist and St. Tammany.
The Census Bureau's CSA adds Tangipahoa and Washington Parishes, to make ten parishes.
According to the New Orleans region's chamber of commerce, ; The region boasts a civilian labor force of over 650,000 and there are over 65,000 students enrolled in the region's nine universities and eight community/technical colleges.
The Louisiana state legislature created a commission, the Regional Planning Commission, to be responsible for the planning and development of the New Orleans metropolitan area. The eight parishes covered by the commission are: Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, St. John the Baptist, St. Tammany and Tangipahoa.

History

The New Orleans metropolitan area was first defined in 1950. Then known as the New Orleans Standard Metropolitan Area, it consisted of three parishes – Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard – and had a population of 685,405. Following a term change by the Bureau of the Budget, the New Orleans SMA was called the New Orleans Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area. By the census of 1960, the population had grown to 868,480, a 27% increase over the previous census.
St. Tammany Parish was added the New Orleans SMSA in 1963. The four-parish area had a combined population of 899,123 in 1960 and 1,045,809 in 1970. By the 1980 census, the population had increased by 14% to 1,187,073.
In 1983, the official name was shortened to the New Orleans Metropolitan Statistical Area. Two more parishes, St. Charles and St. John the Baptist, were added to the MSA the same year, making a six-parish MSA. The newly defined area had a total of 1,256,256 residents in 1980, but that number had declined to 1,238,816 in 1990.
The New Orleans MSA expanded to eight parishes in 1993 with the inclusion of Plaquemines and St. James. The eight-parish area had a combined population of 1,285,270 at the 1990 census and 1,337,726 in 2000.
The MSA was renamed the New Orleans–Metairie–Kenner Metropolitan Statistical Area in 2003. St. James Parish was removed, and in 2015, re-aded to the defined metropolitan area.
The City of Kenner is the largest incorporated city located in Jefferson Parish, just west of the City of New Orleans. With a population at the 2010 census of 138,481, Metairie is the largest community in Jefferson Parish and the fifth-largest Census-designated place in the United States. It is an unincorporated area that would be Louisiana's fourth-largest city if it were incorporated.

Geographic terms

In the New Orleans metropolitan area, the following geographic terms are used: Eastbank, Westbank, Northshore, and River Parishes.

"Eastbank" and "Westbank"

The Mississippi River, running from north to south, divides the United States into eastern and western halves. In southeast Louisiana, though, newcomers are frequently confused by the terms "East Bank" and "West Bank" since, due to the curves of the Mississippi River, what is called the "East Bank" is sometimes located geographically to the west of what is called the "West Bank" and vice versa. The banks also lie to the north and south of the river throughout most of the region. In southeast Louisiana, the term "East Bank" is often used to refer to any area that lies within the eastern half of the United States, as established by its location on the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, while the term "West Bank" is often used to refer to areas along the opposite side of the river. These terms are used in urban, suburban, and rural parishes that are bisected by the Mississippi River, which include Jefferson, Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Charles, St. James and St. John the Baptist.
In the New Orleans metropolitan area, the term "Eastbank" is a blanket term used to refer to all portions of metropolitan New Orleans south of Lake Pontchartrain and situated on the "eastern" bank of the river, while the term "Westbank" is used to refer to all portions of metropolitan New Orleans south of Lake Pontchartrain and situated on the "western" bank of the river. Somewhat perversely, while New Orleanians would never describe a neighborhood as being located north or south of the river, the West Bank is, in fact, as a whole located to the south of the Mississippi River, while the East Bank as a whole is located to the north – and is itself wedged between the Mississippi River and the southern shore of Lake Pontchartrain. The majority of the population of metropolitan New Orleans resides on the East Bank.
The Eastbank of Greater New Orleans includes the portion of Jefferson Parish that lies on the eastern bank of the river and most of Orleans Parish. Also, further down the Mississippi River are those suburbs of New Orleans that are located in St. Bernard Parish, which include Arabi, Chalmette and Meraux as well as Poydras and Violet. All of St. Bernard Parish is located east of the river, extending from the eastern bank of the river back into the marshlands.
The Westbank of Greater New Orleans includes the portion of Jefferson Parish that lies on the western bank of the river and a portion of Orleans Parish. Further down the Mississippi River is the suburb of Belle Chasse, which is located on the western bank of Plaquemines Parish. Plaquemines Parish both encompasses and is bisected by the final leg of the Mississippi River before it enters the Gulf of Mexico. Downriver from Belle Chasse, Plaquemines Parish has numerous rural communities scattered along both banks of the river, but none of these communities have a population greater than 5,000. The terms "Eastbank" and "Westbank" are spelled as one word in local/official terminology when being applied to the Greater New Orleans area.

"Northshore"

The term "Northshore" or "North Shore" refers to areas that lie on the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain and includes St. Tammany Parish. The Northshore includes the communities of Abita Springs, Covington, Eden Isle, Lacombe, Madisonville, Mandeville and Slidell. In Tangipahoa Parish includes the communities of Hammond and Ponchatoula. In Washington Parish the communities of Bogalusa and Franklinton are also considered to have economic ties to Greater New Orleans although those parishes are frequently not included in the statistics for the New Orleans Metropolitan Area. The Northshore region is also part of the Florida Parishes, dating back to the time when the Spanish territory known as Florida extended westward all the way to the Mississippi River, including portions of what are now Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. St. Tammany Parish is the most affluent parish in metropolitan New Orleans and is also the most politically conservative.

"River Parishes"

The term "River Parishes" refers to those parishes along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. The three River Parishes nearest to New Orleans are St. Charles, St. James and St. John the Baptist.

Urban areas of the region

Population rankUrbanized area2010 population
49New Orleans, LA899,703
318Slidell, LA91,151
327Mandeville--Covington, LA88,925

Cities and census designated places

Principal city

Greater New Orleans is home to one of the busiest ports in the world. Greater New Orleans' single Fortune 500 company is Entergy. Other companies headquartered in the area include, Globalstar, Textron, Receivables Exchange, Tidewater Marine, and Intralox. Other companies with large operations in the New Orleans MSA include DXC Technology, Folgers, and GE Capital to name a few.
The New Orleans area has 88% of the nation's oil rigs off its coast, and is in the top three in the country in oil and gas production. The region boasts a civilian labor force of over 650,000 and there are over 65,000 students enrolled in the region's nine universities and eight community/technical colleges as well as thriving film, technology and healthcare industries.
Enormous industrial projects, especially in St. James Parish, will help the New Orleans metro area add 4,600 jobs in 2018 and 7,600 in 2019, according to an annual economic forecast. The New Orleans economy also will benefit from expansions in the health care sector and the National World War II Museum, as well as airport construction.
Growth is expected to accelerate in 2019 because it will be late 2018 or early 2019 before construction begins on the biggest of some announced projects. Those include Formosa Petrochemicals' $9.4 billion complex in St. James Parish and Venture Global's $8.5 billion liquefied natural gas export facility at the Port of Plaquemines.
Thanks in large part to the new $1.1 billion University Medical Center and the $1 billion , New Orleans' profile as a health care destination has improved, according to a report produced by and funded by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana, the state's largest health insurer.
From 2007 to 2016, employment in the New Orleans metro area's health-sciences sector grew by 27 percent, beating the national growth rate of nearly 10 percent and surpassing New Orleans' pre-Katrina pace. Also to thank for the quick pace: Ochsner Health System, the state's biggest nonprofit health care company, which added more than 4,400 jobs over the past five years.

Demographics

According to the 2010 Census, the overall racial composition of the New Orleans metropolitan area was as follows:
For those under 18, the majority are minority, with only 45.2% being non-Hispanic whites.
As of the census of 2000, there were 1,316,510 people, 498,537 households, and 335,531 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 57.4% White, 37.4% African American, 0.4% Native American, 2.2% Asian, <0.1% Pacific Islander, 1.2% from other races, and 1.4% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 4.4% of the population.
The median income for a household in the MSA was $38,880, and the median income for a family was $44,771. Males had a median income of $36,759 versus $23,927 for females. The per capita income for the MSA was $18,126.

Transportation

is located to the west of downtown, in the city of Kenner. The airport is currently served by fifteen airlines. Domestic nonstop service is provided to Atlanta, Austin, Baltimore, Birmingham, Boston, Branson, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Columbus, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Ft. Lauderdale, Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Nashville, New York, Oakland, Orlando, Pensacola, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, St. Louis, Tampa, and Washington DC. International nonstop service is provided to London, Frankfurt, Cancun, Punta Cana, Panama City, and Toronto.
Major highways in the area include Interstate 10, Interstate 12, Interstate 610, Interstate 310, Interstate 510, Interstate 55, and Interstate 59, as well as U.S. Highway 90 and U.S. Highway 61. The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway, a span that is the world's longest bridge over water, connects Metairie to Mandeville on the North Shore.
Metropolitan New Orleans is served by six of the seven Class 1 freight railroads operating in North America. Passenger train service is provided by Amtrak on the Crescent, City of New Orleans, and Sunset Limited routes.
The Port of New Orleans is the 3rd-largest port in the United States, as measured by total bulk tonnage exported. According to the same source, the adjoining Port of South Louisiana is the largest port in the United States when measured by the same factor.
Should metropolitan New Orleans appear to be threatened by a severe hurricane, the Louisiana State Police are prepared to enact a contraflow lane reversal program in order to evacuate the metropolitan area as quickly as possible.

Flood control

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for the design and construction of Greater New Orleans' flood protection system. In 2007, Louisiana voters created a new Southeast Louisiana Flood Protection Authority to coordinate with the Corps of Engineers regarding flood protection issues.
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