Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
USA
MSA
Central City
Suburbs
Figure 9.8.
New Orleans MSA, proportion of the population
living below the poverty threshold in 2000
Metropolitan New Orleans is one of the poorest cities in the US (see Figure 9.8),
with over 240,000 people living below the poverty threshold. The average annual
income of the population of Greater New Orleans was less than 88% of the national
average in 2000, and the share of population living on incomes below the poverty
threshold was just below the Louisiana state average (19.6%).
Poverty more directly affects New Orleans' center city than neighboring
incorporated areas and surrounding suburbs that more closely resemble the national
averages: average income per capita of the center city represented only 80% of the
1999 national average while the percentage of population living on incomes below
the poverty threshold is higher than Detroit. Fifty-four percent of poor inhabitants of
the metropolitan area live within the center city (Orleans Parish) while only 35% of
the metropolitan population call Orleans Parish home. To explain these marked
disparities, it is necessary to reconcile the data on income and poverty with the
ethnic composition of the population.
Poverty mainly affects racial and ethnic minorities. While blacks account for
37% of the population of the metropolitan area, one black in three lives below the
poverty threshold in New Orleans compared to one in four for the national average,
so that two out of three metropolitan people living in poverty are blacks. Per capita
income among African-American New Orleanians was $11,300 (53% of average
national income) compared to $14,400 per capita, or 78% of average income for all
African-Americans living in the United States.
