Founded in 1718 by French colonists, New Orleans was once the territorial capital ofFrench Louisiana before becoming part of the United States in theLouisiana Purchase of 1803. New Orleans in 1840 was the third most populous city in the United States,[18] and it was the largest city in theAmerican South from theAntebellum era until afterWorld War II. The city has historically been very vulnerable toflooding, due to its high rainfall, low lying elevation, poor natural drainage, and proximity to multiple bodies of water. State and federal authorities have installeda complex system of levees and drainage pumps in an effort to protect the city.[19][20]
New Orleans wasseverely affected byHurricane Katrina in late August 2005, which flooded more than 80% of the city, killed more than 1,800 people, and displaced thousands of residents, causing apopulation decline of over 50%.[21] Since Katrina, majorredevelopment efforts have led to a rebound in the city's population. Concerns have been expressed aboutgentrification, new residents buying property in formerly close-knit communities, and displacement of longtime residents.[22][23][24][25] Additionally, high rates of violent crime continue to plague the city with New Orleans experiencing 280 murders in 2022, resulting in thehighest per capita homicide rate in the United States.[26][27]
Before the arrival of European colonists, the indigenousChoctaw people called the area of present-day New OrleansBulbancha, which translates as "land of many tongues".[32][33] It appears to have been a contraction ofbalbáha a̱shah, which means "there are foreign speakers". In his bookHistoire de la Louisiane,Antoine-Simon Le Page du Pratz wrote that the indigenous name referred to theMississippi River and that the use of the same name for the settlement relates to Native American concepts of the close interaction between rivers and their surrounding land.[34]
The name of New Orleans derives from the original French name,La Nouvelle-Orléans, which was given to the city in honor ofPhilippe II, Duke of Orléans, who served asLouis XV's regent from 1715 to 1723.[35] The French city ofOrléans itself is named after theRoman emperorAurelian, originally being known as Aurelianum. Thus, by extension, since New Orleans is also named after Aurelian, its name in Latin would translate to Nova Aurelia.
As a French colony,Louisiana faced struggles with numerousNative American tribes, who were navigating the competing interests of France, Spain, and England, as well as traditional rivals. Notably, theNatchez, whose traditional lands were along the Mississippi near the modern city ofNatchez, Mississippi, had a series of wars culminating in theNatchez Revolt that began in 1729 with the Natchez overrunningFort Rosalie. Approximately 230 French colonists were killed and the Natchez settlement destroyed, causing fear and concern in New Orleans and the rest of the territory.[42] In retaliation, then-governorÉtienne Perier launched a campaign tocompletely destroy the Natchez nation and its Native allies.[43] By 1731, the Natchez people had been killed, enslaved, or dispersed among other tribes, but the campaign soured relations between France and the territory's Native Americans leading directly into theChickasaw Wars of the 1730s.[44]
Relations with Louisiana's Native American population remained a concern into the 1740s for governorMarquis de Vaudreuil. In the early 1740s traders from theThirteen Colonies crossed into the Appalachian Mountains. The Native American tribes would now operate dependent on which of various European colonists would most benefit them. Several of these tribes and especially theChickasaw andChoctaw would trade goods and gifts for their loyalty.[45] The economic issue in the colony, which continued under Vaudreuil, resulted in many raids by Native American tribes, taking advantage of the French weakness. In 1747 and 1748, the Chickasaw would raid along the east bank of the Mississippi all the way south toBaton Rouge. These raids would often force residents of French Louisiana to take refuge in New Orleans proper.[citation needed]
Inability to find labor was the most pressing issue in the young colony. The colonists turned tosub-Saharan African slaves to make their investments in Louisiana profitable. In the late 1710s thetransatlantic slave trade imported enslaved Africans into the colony. This led to the biggest shipment in 1716 where several trading ships appeared with slaves as cargo to the local residents in a one-year span. By 1724, the large number of blacks in Louisiana prompted the institutionalizing of laws governing slavery within the colony.[46] These laws required that slaves be baptized in the Roman Catholic faith, slaves be married in the church; the slave law formed in the 1720s is known as theCode Noir, which would bleed into the antebellum period of the American South as well. Louisiana slave culture had its own distinct Afro-Creole society that called on past cultures and the situation for slaves in theNew World. Afro-Creole was present in religious beliefs and theLouisiana Creole language. The religion most associated with this period was calledVoodoo.[47][48]
In the city of New Orleans an inspiring mixture of foreign influences created a melting pot of culture that is still celebrated today. By the end of French colonization in Louisiana, New Orleans was recognized commercially in the Atlantic world. Its inhabitants traded across the French commercial system. New Orleans was a hub for this trade both physically and culturally because it served as the exit point to the rest of the globe for the interior of the North American continent. In one instance the French government established a chapter house of sisters in New Orleans. TheUrsuline sisters after being sponsored by theCompany of the Indies, founded a convent in the city in 1727.[49] At the end of the colonial era, the Ursuline Academy maintained a house of 70 boarding and 100 day students. Today numerous schools in New Orleans can trace their lineage from this academy.[citation needed]
1724 plan for Saint Louis Parish Church, New Orleans, Louisiana, byAdrien de Pauger
Another notable example is the street plan and architecture still distinguishing New Orleans today. French Louisiana had early architects in the province who were trained as military engineers and were now assigned to design government buildings. Pierre Le Blond de Tour andAdrien de Pauger, for example, planned many early fortifications, along with the street plan for the city of New Orleans.[50] After them in the 1740s, Ignace François Broutin, as engineer-in-chief of Louisiana, reworked the architecture of New Orleans with an extensive public works program. French policy-makers in Paris attempted to set political and economic norms for New Orleans. The city acted autonomously in much of its cultural and physical aspects, but stayed in communication with the foreign trends as well.[citation needed]
TheFrench colony of Louisiana was ceded to theSpanish Empire in the1763 Treaty of Paris, followingFrance's defeat byGreat Britain in theSeven Years' War. After the French relinquished West Louisiana to the Spanish, New Orleans merchants attempted to ignore Spanish rule and even re-institute French control on the colony. The citizens of New Orleans held a series of public meetings during 1765 to keep the populace in opposition of the establishment of Spanish rule. Anti-Spanish passions in New Orleans reached their highest level after two years of Spanish administration in Louisiana. On October 27, 1768, a mob of local residents, spiked the guns guarding New Orleans andtook control of the city from the Spanish.[51] The rebellion organized a group to sail for Paris, where it met with officials of the French government. This group brought with them a long memorial to summarize the abuses the colony had endured from the Spanish. King Louis XV and his ministers reaffirmed Spain's sovereignty over Louisiana.[52] Nearly all of the surviving 18th-centuryarchitecture of the Vieux Carré (French Quarter) dates from the Spanish period, notably excepting theOld Ursuline Convent.[53]
Flag raising in thePlace d'Armes (now Jackson Square), New Orleans, after theLouisiana Purchase, marking the transfer of sovereignty over French Louisiana to the United States, December 20, 1803
Between 1791 and 1810, thousands ofSt. Dominicanrefugees from theHaitian Revolution, bothwhites andfree people of color (affranchis orgens de couleur libres), arrived in New Orleans; a number brought their slaves with them, many of whom were native Africans or of full-blood descent.[57] While GovernorClaiborne and other officials wanted to keep out additionalfree black people, the French Creoles wanted to increase the French-speaking population. In addition to bolstering the territory's French-speaking population, these refugees had a significant impact on the culture of Louisiana, including developing its sugar industry and cultural institutions.[58]
As more refugees were allowed into theTerritory of Orleans,St. Dominican refugees who had first gone toCuba also arrived.[59] Many of the whiteFrancophones had been deported by officials in Cuba in 1809 as retaliation forBonapartist schemes.[60] Nearly 90 percent of these immigrants settled in New Orleans. The 1809 migration brought 2,731 whites, 3,102 free people of color (ofmixed-race European and African descent), and 3,226 slaves of primarily African descent, doubling the city's population. The city became 63 percent black, a greater proportion thanCharleston, South Carolina's 53 percent at that time.[59]
Slave rebellion
On January 8–11, 1811, about 500 enslaved Africans in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes rose up in rebellion against their enslavers, killing two white men in the process. They proceeded to march south toward New Orleans and were eventually controlled by the local militia, with numerous casualties on both sides.The uprising has been called the "largest slave rebellion in US history."[61]
The armies had not learned of theTreaty of Ghent, which had been signed on December 24, 1814 (however, the treaty did not call for cessation of hostilities until after both governments had ratified it. The U.S. government ratified it on February 16, 1815). The fighting in Louisiana began in December 1814 and did not end until late January, after the Americans held off theRoyal Navy during a ten-daysiege of Fort St. Philip (the Royal Navy went on to captureFort Bowyer nearMobile, before the commanders received news of the peace treaty).[63]
As aport, New Orleans played a major role during theantebellum period in theAtlantic slave trade. The port handled commodities for export from the interior and imported goods from other countries, which were warehoused and transferred in New Orleans to smaller vessels and distributed along the Mississippi River watershed. The river was filled with steamboats, flatboats and sailing ships. Despite its role in theslave trade, New Orleans at the time also had the largest and most prosperous community of free persons of color in the nation, who were often educated, middle-class property owners.[64][65]
Dwarfing the other cities in the Antebellum South, New Orleans had the U.S.' largest slave market. The market expanded after the United States ended the international trade in 1808. Two-thirds of the more than one million slaves brought to theDeep South arrived viaforced migration in the domestic slave trade. The money generated by the sale of slaves in theUpper South has been estimated at 15 percent of the value of the staple crop economy. The slaves were collectively valued at half a billion dollars. The trade spawned an ancillary economy—transportation, housing and clothing, fees, etc., estimated at 13.5 percent of the price per person, amounting to tens of billions of dollars (2005 dollars, adjusted for inflation) during the antebellum period, with New Orleans as a prime beneficiary.[66]
According to historian Paul Lachance,
the addition of white immigrants [from Saint-Domingue] to the white creole population enabled French-speakers to remain a majority of the white population until almost 1830. If a substantial proportion of free persons of color and slaves had not also spoken French, however, theGallic community would have become a minority of the total population as early as 1820.[67]
After the Louisiana Purchase, numerousAnglo-Americans migrated to the city. The population doubled in the 1830s and by 1840, New Orleans had become the nation's wealthiest and the third-most populous city, afterNew York andBaltimore.[68] German and Irish immigrants began arriving in the 1840s, working as port laborers. In this period, the state legislature passed more restrictions onmanumissions of slaves and virtually ended it in 1852.[69]
In the 1850s, white Francophones remained an intact and vibrant community in New Orleans. They maintained instruction in French in two of the city's four school districts (all served white students).[70] In 1860, the city had 13,000 free people of color (gens de couleur libres), the class of free, mostlymixed-race people that expanded in number during French and Spanish rule. They set up some private schools for their children. The census recorded 81 percent of the free people of color asmulatto, a term used to cover all degrees of mixed race.[69][page needed] Mostly part of the Francophone group, they constituted the artisan, educated and professional class of African Americans. The mass of blacks were still enslaved, working at the port, in domestic service, in crafts, and mostly on the many large, surroundingsugarcane plantations.
Throughout New Orleans' history, until the early 20th century when medical and scientific advances ameliorated the situation, the city suffered repeatedepidemics ofyellow fever and other tropical andinfectious diseases.[71] In the first half of the 19th century, yellow fever epidemics killed over 150,000 people in New Orleans.[72]
After growing by 45 percent in the 1850s, by 1860, the city had nearly 170,000 people.[73] It had grown in wealth, with a "per capita income [that] was second in the nation and the highest in the South."[73] The city had a role as the "primary commercial gateway for the nation's booming midsection."[73] The port was the nation's third largest in terms of tonnage of imported goods, after Boston and New York, handling 659,000 tons in 1859.[73]
The starving people of New Orleans under Union occupation during the Civil War, 1862
As the Creole elite feared, theAmerican Civil War changed their world. In April 1862, following the city's occupation by the Union Navy after theBattle of Forts Jackson and St. Philip,Gen. Benjamin F. Butler – a respected Massachusetts lawyer serving in that state's militia – was appointed military governor. New Orleans residents supportive of the Confederacy nicknamed him "Beast" Butler, because of an order he issued. After his troops had been assaulted and harassed in the streets by women still loyal to the Confederate cause, his order warned that such future occurrences would result in his men treating such women as those "plying their avocation in the streets", implying that they would treat the women like prostitutes. Accounts of this spread widely. He also came to be called "Spoons" Butler because of the alleged looting that his troops did while occupying the city, during which time he himself supposedly pilfered silver flatware.[74]
Significantly, Butler abolished French-language instruction in city schools. Statewide measures in 1864 and, after the war, 1868 further strengthened the English-only policy imposed by federal representatives. With the predominance of English speakers, that language had already become dominant in business and government.[70] By the end of the 19th century, French usage had faded. It was also under pressure from Irish, Italian and German immigrants.[75] However, as late as 1902 "one-fourth of the population of the city spoke French in ordinary daily intercourse, while another two-fourths was able to understand the language perfectly,"[76] and as late as 1945, many elderly Creole women spoke no English.[77] The last major French language newspaper,L'Abeille de la Nouvelle-Orléans (New Orleans Bee), ceased publication on December 27, 1923, after 96 years.[78] According to some sources,Le Courrier de la Nouvelle Orleans continued until 1955.[79]
As the city was captured and occupied early in the war, it was spared the destruction through warfare suffered by many other cities of theAmerican South. TheUnion Army eventually extended its control north along theMississippi River and along the coastal areas. As a result, most of the southern portion of Louisiana was originally exempted from the liberating provisions of the 1863Emancipation Proclamation issued by PresidentAbraham Lincoln. Large numbers of rural ex-slaves and some free people of color from the city volunteered for the first regiments of Black troops in the War. Led by Brigadier GeneralDaniel Ullman (1810–1892), of the 78th Regiment of New York State Volunteers Militia, they were known as the "Corps d'Afrique". While that name had been used by a militia before the war, that group was composed offree people of color. The new group was made up mostly of former slaves. They were supplemented in the last two years of the War by newly organizedUnited States Colored Troops, who played an increasingly important part in the war.[80]
Violence throughout the South, especially theMemphis Riots of 1866 followed by theNew Orleans Riot in the same year, led Congress to pass theReconstruction Act and theFourteenth Amendment, extending the protections of full citizenship to freedmen and free people of color. Louisiana andTexas were put under the authority of the "Fifth Military District" of the United States during Reconstruction. Louisiana was readmitted to the Union in 1868. Its Constitution of 1868 granteduniversal male suffrage and established universalpublic education. Both blacks and whites were elected to local and state offices. In 1872, lieutenant governorP.B.S. Pinchback, who was ofmixed race, succeededHenry Clay Warmouth for a brief period as Republican governor of Louisiana, becoming the first governor of African descent of a U.S. state (the next African American to serve as governor of a U.S. state wasDouglas Wilder, elected in Virginia in 1989). New Orleans operated a racially integratedpublic school system during this period.
Wartime damage tolevees and cities along the Mississippi River adversely affected southern crops and trade. The federal government contributed to restoring infrastructure. The nationwide financial recession andPanic of 1873 adversely affected businesses and slowed economic recovery.
Black and whitedockworkers resting on cotton bales
From 1868, elections in Louisiana were marked by violence, as white insurgents tried to suppress black voting and disruptRepublican Party gatherings. The disputed 1872 gubernatorial election resulted in conflicts that ran for years. The "White League", an insurgent paramilitary group that supported theDemocratic Party, was organized in 1874 and operated in the open, violently suppressing the black vote and running off Republican officeholders. In 1874, in theBattle of Liberty Place, 5,000 members of the White League fought with city police to take over the state offices for the Democratic candidate for governor, holding them for three days. By 1876, such tactics resulted in the whiteDemocrats, the so-calledRedeemers, regaining political control of the state legislature. The federal government gave up and withdrew its troops in 1877, endingReconstruction.
In 1892 the racially integrated unions of New Orleans led ageneral strike in the city from November 8 to 12, shutting down the city & winning the vast majority of their demands.[81][82]
Jim Crow era
Dixiecrats passedJim Crow laws, establishingracial segregation in public facilities. In 1889, the legislature passed aconstitutional amendment incorporating a "grandfather clause" that effectivelydisfranchised freedmen as well as the propertied people of colormanumitted before the war. Unable to vote, African Americans could not serve on juries or in local office, and were closed out of formal politics for generations. The Southern U.S. was ruled by a white Democratic Party. Public schools wereracially segregated and remained so until 1960.
New Orleans' large community of well-educated, often French-speakingfree persons of color (gens de couleur libres), who had been free prior to the Civil War, fought against Jim Crow. They organized theComité des Citoyens (Citizens Committee) to work for civil rights. As part of their legal campaign, they recruited one of their own,Homer Plessy, to test whether Louisiana's newly enacted Separate Car Act was constitutional. Plessy boarded a commuter train departing New Orleans forCovington, Louisiana, sat in the car reserved for whites only, and was arrested. The case resulting from this incident,Plessy v. Ferguson, was heard by theU.S. Supreme Court in 1896. The court ruled that "separate but equal" accommodations were constitutional, effectively upholding Jim Crow measures.
In practice, African American public schools and facilities were underfunded across the South. The Supreme Court ruling contributed to this period as thenadir of race relations in the United States. The rate oflynchings of black men was high across the South, as other states also disfranchised blacks and sought to impose Jim Crow. Nativist prejudices also surfaced.Anti-Italian sentiment in 1891 contributed to thelynchings of 11 Italians, some of whom had been acquitted of the murder of the police chief. Some were shot and killed in the jail where they were detained. It was the largest mass lynching in U.S. history.[83][84] In July 1900 the city was swept by white mobs rioting after Robert Charles, a young African American, killed a policeman and temporarily escaped. The mob killed him and an estimated 20 other blacks; seven whites died in the days-long conflict, until astate militia suppressed it.
20th century
Esplanade Avenue at Burgundy Street, looking lakewards (north) towardsLake Pontchartrain in 19001943 waiting line at wartime Rationing Board office in New Orleans
New Orleans' economic and population zenith in relation to other American cities occurred in the antebellum period. It was the nation's fifth-largest city in 1860 (after New York,Philadelphia,Boston and Baltimore) and was significantly larger than all other southern cities.[85] From the mid-19th century onward rapid economic growth shifted to other areas, while New Orleans' relative importance steadily declined. The growth of railways and highways decreased river traffic, diverting goods to other transportation corridors and markets.[85] Thousands of the most ambitiouspeople of color left the state in theGreat Migration aroundWorld War II and after, many forWest Coast destinations. From the late 1800s, most censuses recorded New Orleans slipping down the ranks in the list of largest American cities (New Orleans' population still continued to increase throughout the period, but at a slower rate than before the Civil War).
By the mid-20th century, New Orleanians recognized that their city was no longer the leading urban area in the South. By 1950,Houston,Dallas, andAtlanta exceeded New Orleans in size, and in 1960Miami eclipsed New Orleans, even as the latter's population reached its historic peak.[85] As with other older American cities, highway construction and suburban development drew residents from the center city to newer housing outside. The 1970 census recorded the first absolute decline in population since the city became part of the United States in 1803. TheGreater New Orleans metropolitan area continued expanding in population, albeit more slowly than other majorSun Belt cities. While theport remained one of the nation's largest, automation andcontainerization cost many jobs. The city's former role as banker to the South was supplanted by larger peer cities. New Orleans' economy had always been based more on trade and financial services than on manufacturing, but the city's relatively small manufacturing sector also shrank after World War II. Despite some economic development successes under the administrations ofDeLesseps "Chep" Morrison (1946–1961) andVictor "Vic" Schiro (1961–1970), metropolitan New Orleans' growth rate consistently lagged behind more vigorous cities.
Civil Rights movement
During the later years of Morrison's administration, and for the entirety of Schiro's, the city was a center of theCivil Rights movement. TheSouthern Christian Leadership Conference was founded in New Orleans, and lunch counter sit-ins were held inCanal Street department stores. A prominent and violent series of confrontations occurred in 1960 when the city attempted school desegregation, following the Supreme Court ruling inBrown v. Board of Education (1954). When six-year-oldRuby Bridges integratedWilliam Frantz Elementary School in theNinth Ward, she was the first child of color to attend a previously all-white school in the South. Much controversy preceded the1956 Sugar Bowl atTulane Stadium, when thePitt Panthers, with African-American fullbackBobby Grier on the roster, met theGeorgia Tech Yellow Jackets.[89] There had been controversy over whether Grier should be allowed to play due to his race, and whether Georgia Tech should even play at all due to Georgia'sGovernorMarvin Griffin's opposition to racial integration.[90][91][92] After Griffin publicly sent a telegram to the state's Board Of Regents requesting Georgia Tech not to engage in racially integrated events, Georgia Tech's presidentBlake R. Van Leer rejected the request and threatened to resign. The game went on as planned.[93]
The Civil Rights movement's success in gaining federal passage of theCivil Rights Act of 1964 and theVoting Rights Act of 1965 renewed constitutional rights, including voting for blacks. Together, these resulted in the most far-reaching changes in New Orleans' 20th century history.[94] Though legal and civil equality were re-established by the end of the 1960s, a large gap in income levels and educational attainment persisted between the city's White and African American communities.[95] As the middle class and wealthier members of both races left the center city, its population's income level dropped, and it became proportionately more African American. From 1980, the African American majority elected primarily officials from its own community. They struggled to narrow the gap by creating conditions conducive to the economic uplift of the African American community.
New Orleans became increasingly dependent on tourism as an economic mainstay during the administrations ofSidney Barthelemy (1986–1994) andMarc Morial (1994–2002). Relatively low levels of educational attainment, high rates of household poverty, and rising crime threatened the city's prosperity in the later decades of the century.[95] The negative effects of these socioeconomic conditions aligned poorly with the changes in the late-20th century to the economy of the United States, which reflected a post-industrial, knowledge-based paradigm in which mental skills and education were more important to advancement than manual skills.
In the 20th century, New Orleans' government and business leaders believed they needed to drain and develop outlying areas to provide for the city's expansion. The most ambitious development during this period was a drainage plan devised by engineer and inventorA. Baldwin Wood, designed to break the surrounding swamp's stranglehold on the city's geographic expansion. Until then, urban development in New Orleans was largely limited to higher ground along the natural river levees andbayous.
Wood's pump system allowed the city to drain huge tracts of swamp and marshland and expand into low-lying areas. Over the 20th century, rapidsubsidence, both natural and human-induced, resulted in these newly populated areas subsiding to several feet below sea level.[96][97]
New Orleans was vulnerable to flooding even before the city's footprint departed from the natural high ground near the Mississippi River. In the late 20th century, however, scientists and New Orleans residents gradually became aware of the city's increased vulnerability. In 1965, flooding fromHurricane Betsy killed dozens of residents, although the majority of the city remained dry. The rain-inducedflood of May 8, 1995, demonstrated the weakness of the pumping system. After that event, measures were undertaken to dramatically upgrade pumping capacity. By the 1980s and 1990s, scientists observed that extensive, rapid, and ongoingerosion of the marshlands and swamp surrounding New Orleans, especially that related to theMississippi River–Gulf Outlet Canal, had the unintended result of leaving the city more vulnerable than before to hurricane-induced catastrophicstorm surges.[citation needed]
21st century
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina at its landfall near the Louisiana-Mississippi border
New Orleans was catastrophically affected by what Raymond B. Seed called "the worst engineering disaster in the world sinceChernobyl", whenthe federal levee system failed duringHurricane Katrina on August 29, 2005.[98] By the time the hurricane approached the city on August 29, 2005, most residents had evacuated. As the hurricane passed through theGulf Coast region that day, the city'sfederal flood protection system failed, resulting in the worstcivil engineering disaster in American history at the time.[99] Floodwalls andlevees constructed by theUnited States Army Corps of Engineers failed below design specifications and 80% of the city flooded. Tens of thousands of residents who had remained were rescued or otherwise made their way to shelters of last resort at theLouisiana Superdome or theNew Orleans Morial Convention Center. More than 1,500 people were recorded as having died in Louisiana, most in New Orleans, while others remain unaccounted for.[100][101] Before Hurricane Katrina, the city called for the first mandatory evacuation in its history, to be followed by another mandatory evacuation three years later withHurricane Gustav.[102]
The city was declared off-limits to residents while efforts to clean up afterHurricane Katrina began. The approach ofHurricane Rita in September 2005 caused repopulation efforts to be postponed,[103] and theLower Ninth Ward was reflooded by Rita's storm surge.[101]
An aerial view from a United States Navy helicopter showing floodwaters around the Louisiana Superdome (stadium) and surrounding area (2005)
Because of the scale of damage, many people resettled permanently outside the area. Federal, state, and local efforts supported recovery and rebuilding in severely damaged neighborhoods. The U.S. Census Bureau in July 2006 estimated the population to be 223,000; a subsequent study estimated that 32,000 additional residents had moved to the city as of March 2007, bringing the estimated population to 255,000, approximately 56% of the pre-Katrina population level. Another estimate, based on utility usage from July 2007, estimated the population to be approximately 274,000 or 60% of the pre-Katrina population. These estimates are somewhat smaller to a third estimate, based on mail delivery records, from the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center in June 2007, which indicated that the city had regained approximately two-thirds of its pre-Katrina population.[104] In 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau revised its population estimate for the city upward, to 336,644.[105] Most recently, by July 2015, the population was back up to 386,617—80% of what it was in 2000.[106]
On January 1, 2025,a truck attack occurred in New Orleans, killing 15 people and injuring 35. The attack was carried out as an act ofdomestic terrorism and was committed by Shamsud-Din Jabbar.
Geography
A true-color image captured byESA'sSentinel-2A in April 2024, New Orleans positioned at the bottom right of the image.Lake Pontchartrain prominently occupies the central area of the image, while theMississippi River can also be observed coursing through the city.
New Orleans is located in theMississippi River Delta, south ofLake Pontchartrain, on the banks of theMississippi River, approximately 105 miles (169 km) upriver from theGulf of Mexico. According to theU.S. Census Bureau, the city's area is 350 square miles (910 km2), of which 169 square miles (440 km2) is land and 181 square miles (470 km2) (52%) is water.[111] The area along the river is characterized by ridges and hollows.
Vertical cross-section, showing maximum levee height of 23 feet (7.0 m)
New Orleans was originally settled on the river's naturallevees or high ground. After theFlood Control Act of 1965, theU.S. Army Corps of Engineers built floodwalls and man-madelevees around a much larger geographic footprint that included previous marshland and swamp. Over time, pumping of water from marshland allowed for development into lower elevation areas. Today, half of the city is at or below local mean sea level, while the other half is slightly above sea level. Evidence suggests that portions of the city may be dropping in elevation due tosubsidence.[112]
A 2007 study byTulane andXavier University suggested that "51%... of the contiguous urbanized portions of Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard parishes lie at or above sea level," with the more densely populated areas generally on higher ground. The average elevation of the city is currently between 1 and 2 feet (0.30 and 0.61 m) below sea level, with some portions of the city as high as 20 feet (6 m) at the base of the river levee inUptown and others as low as 7 feet (2 m) below sea level in the farthest reaches ofEastern New Orleans.[113][114] A study published by theASCEJournal of Hydrologic Engineering in 2016, however, stated:
...most of New Orleans proper—about 65%—is at or below mean sea level, as defined by the average elevation of Lake Pontchartrain[115]
The magnitude of subsidence potentially caused by the draining of natural marsh in the New Orleans area and southeast Louisiana is a topic of debate. A study published inGeology in 2006 by an associate professor at Tulane University claims:
While erosion and wetland loss are huge problems along Louisiana's coast, the basement 30 feet (9.1 m) to 50 feet (15 m) beneath much of the Mississippi Delta has been highly stable for the past 8,000 years with negligible subsidence rates.[116]
The study noted, however, that the results did not necessarily apply to the Mississippi River Delta, nor the New Orleans metropolitan area proper. On the other hand, a report by theAmerican Society of Civil Engineers claims that "New Orleans is subsiding (sinking)":[117]
Large portions of Orleans,St. Bernard, andJefferson parishes are currently below sea level—and continue to sink. New Orleans is built on thousands of feet of soft sand, silt, and clay. Subsidence, or settling of the ground surface, occurs naturally due to the consolidation and oxidation of organic soils (called "marsh" in New Orleans) and local groundwater pumping. In the past, flooding and deposition of sediments from the Mississippi River counterbalanced the natural subsidence, leaving southeast Louisiana at orabove sea level. However, due to major flood control structures being built upstream on the Mississippi River and levees being built around New Orleans, fresh layers of sediment are not replenishing the ground lost by subsidence.[117]
In May 2016, NASA published a study which suggested that most areas were, in fact, experiencing subsidence at a "highly variable rate" which was "generally consistent with, but somewhat higher than, previous studies."[118]
Bourbon Street, New Orleans, in 2003, looking towards Canal StreetNew Orleans contains many distinctive neighborhoods.
TheCentral Business District is located immediately north and west of the Mississippi and was historically called the "American Quarter" or "American Sector". It was developed after the heart of French and Spanish settlement. It includesLafayette Square. Most streets in this area fan out from a central point. Major streets includeCanal Street, Poydras Street, Tulane Avenue and Loyola Avenue. Canal Street divides the traditional "downtown" area from the "uptown" area.
Every street crossing Canal Street between the Mississippi River andRampart Street, which is the northern edge of the French Quarter, has a different name for the "uptown" and "downtown" portions. For example,St. Charles Avenue, known for its street car line, is calledRoyal Street below Canal Street, though where it traverses the Central Business District between Canal and Lee Circle, it is properly called St. Charles Street.[119] Elsewhere in the city, Canal Street serves as the dividing point between the "South" and "North" portions of various streets. In the localparlancedowntown means "downriver from Canal Street", whileuptown means "upriver from Canal Street". Downtown neighborhoods include the French Quarter,Tremé, the7th Ward,Faubourg Marigny,Bywater (the Upper Ninth Ward), and the LowerNinth Ward.Uptown neighborhoods include the Warehouse District, theLower Garden District, theGarden District, theIrish Channel, the University District,Carrollton,Gert Town,Fontainebleau andBroadmoor. However, the Warehouse and the Central Business District are frequently called "Downtown" as a specific region, as in the Downtown Development District.
New Orleans is world-famous for its abundance of architectural styles that reflect the city's multicultural heritage. Though New Orleans possesses numerous structures of national architectural significance, it is equally, if not more, revered for its enormous, largely intact (even post-Katrina) historic built environment. Twenty National Register Historic Districts have been established, and fourteen local historic districts aid in preservation. Thirteen of the districts are administered by the New Orleans Historic District Landmarks Commission (HDLC), while one—the French Quarter—is administered by the Vieux Carre Commission (VCC). Additionally, both theNational Park Service, via theNational Register of Historic Places, and the HDLC have landmarked individual buildings, many of which lie outside the boundaries of existing historic districts.[120]
Housing styles include theshotgun house and thebungalow style. Creole cottages and townhouses, notable for their large courtyards and intricate iron balconies, line the streets of the French Quarter. American townhouses, double-gallery houses, and Raised Center-Hall Cottages are notable.St. Charles Avenue is famed for its largeantebellum homes. Its mansions are in various styles, such asGreek Revival,American Colonial and theVictorian styles ofQueen Anne andItalianate architecture. New Orleans is also noted for its large, European-style Catholic cemeteries.
For much of its history, New Orleans' skyline displayed only low- and mid-rise structures. The soft soils are susceptible to subsidence, and there was doubt about the feasibility of constructing high rises. Developments in engineering throughout the 20th century eventually made it possible to build sturdy foundations in the foundations that underlie the structures. In the 1960s, theWorld Trade Center New Orleans andPlaza Tower demonstrated skyscrapers' viability.One Shell Square became the city's tallest building in 1972. The oil boom of the 1970s and early 1980s redefined New Orleans' skyline with the development of the Poydras Street corridor. Most are clustered alongCanal Street and Poydras Street in the Central Business District.
The climate of New Orleans ishumid subtropical (Köppen:Cfa), with short, generally mild winters and hot, humid summers; in the 1991-2020 climate normals the USDA hardiness zone is 9b, with the coldest temperature in most years being about 27.6 °F (−2.4 °C). The monthly daily average temperature ranges from 54.3 °F (12.4 °C) in January to 84 °F (28.9 °C) in August. Officially, as measured at New Orleans International Airport, temperature records range from 11 to 105 °F (−12 to 41 °C)on December 23, 1989, and August 27, 2023, respectively; Audubon Park has recorded temperatures ranging from 6 °F (−14 °C) onFebruary 13, 1899, up to 104 °F (40 °C) on June 24, 2009, and August 28, 2023.[121] Dewpoints in the summer months (June–August) are relatively high, ranging from 71.1 to 73.4 °F (21.7 to 23.0 °C).[122]
The average precipitation is 62.5 inches (1,590 mm) annually; the summer months are the wettest, while October is the driest month.[121] Precipitation in winter usually accompanies the passing of a cold front. There are a median of over 80 days of 90 °F (32 °C)+ highs, 9 days per winter where the high does not exceed 50 °F (10 °C), and less than 8 nights with freezing lows annually, although it is not uncommon for entire winter seasons to pass with no freezing temperatures at all, such as the 2003-04 winter, the 2012-13 winter, the 2015-16 winter and the consecutive winters of 2018-19 and 2019–20. It is rare for the temperature to reach 20 or 100 °F (−7 or 38 °C), with the last occurrence of each being January 17, 2018, and August 27, 2023, respectively.[121][123]
New Orleans experiences snowfall only on rare occasions. A small amount of snow fell during the2004 Christmas Eve Snowstorm and again onChristmas (December 25) when a combination of rain, sleet, and snow fell on the city, leaving some bridges icy. TheNew Year's Eve 1963 snowstorm affected New Orleans and brought 4.5 inches (11 cm). Snow fell again on December 22, 1989, during theDecember 1989 United States cold wave, when most of the city received 1–2 inches (2.5–5.1 cm).
The last significant snowfall in New Orleans was onJanuary 21, 2025, when the city received 8–10 inches (20–25 cm) of snow.[124]
On August 29, 2005, storm surge from Hurricane Katrina caused catastrophic failure of thefederally designed and built levees, flooding 80% of the city.[135][136] A report by the American Society of Civil Engineers says that "had the levees and floodwalls not failed and had the pump stations operated, nearly two-thirds of the deaths would not have occurred".[117]
New Orleans has always had to consider the risk of hurricanes, but the risks are dramatically greater today due to coastal erosion from human interference.[137] Since the beginning of the 20th century, it has been estimated that Louisiana has lost 2,000 square miles (5,000 km2) of coast (including many of its barrier islands), which once protected New Orleans against storm surge. Following Hurricane Katrina, the Army Corps of Engineers has instituted massive levee repair and hurricane protection measures to protect the city.
In 2006, Louisiana voters overwhelmingly adopted an amendment to the state's constitution to dedicate all revenues from off-shore drilling to restore Louisiana's eroding coast line.[138] U.S. Congress has allocated $7 billion to bolster New Orleans' flood protection.[139]
According to a study by theNational Academy of Engineering and theNational Research Council, levees and floodwalls surrounding New Orleans—no matter how large or sturdy—cannot provide absolute protection against overtopping or failure in extreme events. Levees and floodwalls should be viewed as a way to reduce risks from hurricanes and storm surges, not as measures that eliminate risk. For structures in hazardous areas and residents who do not relocate, the committee recommended majorfloodproofing measures—such as elevating the first floor of buildings to at least the 100-year flood level.[140]
Population given for the City of New Orleans, not for Orleans Parish, before New Orleans absorbed suburbs and rural areas of Orleans Parish in 1874, since which time the city and parish have been coterminous. Population for Orleans Parish was 41,351 in 1820; 49,826 in 1830; 102,193 in 1840; 119,460 in 1850; 174,491 in 1860; and 191,418 in 1870. Source: U.S. Decennial Census[141] Historical Population Figures[105][142][143][144][145] 1790–1960[146] 1900–1990[147] 1990–2000[148] 2010–2013[149] 2020 estimate[150]
From the2010 U.S. census to 2014 census estimates the city grew by 12%, adding an average of more than 10,000 new residents each year following the official decennial census.[142] According to the2020 United States census, there were 383,997 people, 151,753 households, and 69,370 families residing in the city. Prior to 1960, the population of New Orleans steadily increased to a historic 627,525.
Beginning in 1960, the population decreased due to factors such as the cycles of oil production and tourism,[151][152][additional citation(s) needed] and assuburbanization increased (as with many cities),[153] and jobs migrated to surrounding parishes.[154] This economic and population decline resulted in high levels of poverty in the city; in 1960 it had the fifth-highest poverty rate of all U.S. cities,[155] and was almost twice the national average in 2005, at 24.5%.[153] New Orleans experienced an increase inresidential segregation from 1900 to 1980, leaving the disproportionately Black and African American poor in older, low-lying locations.[154] These areas were especially susceptible to flood and storm damage.[156]
The last population estimate before Hurricane Katrina was 454,865, as of July 1, 2005.[157] A population analysis released in August 2007 estimated the population to be 273,000, 60% of the pre-Katrina population and an increase of about 50,000 since July 2006.[158] A September 2007 report by The Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, which tracks population based on U.S. Postal Service figures, found that in August 2007, just over 137,000 households received mail. That compares with about 198,000 households in July 2005, representing about 70% of pre-Katrina population.[159] In 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau revised upward its 2008 population estimate for the city, to 336,644 inhabitants.[105] Estimates from 2010 showed that neighborhoods that did not flood were near or even greater than 100% of their pre-Katrina populations.[160]
Katrina displaced 800,000 people, contributing significantly to the decline.[161] Black and African Americans, renters, the elderly, and people with low income were disproportionately affected by Katrina, compared to affluent and White residents.[162][163] Those same groups also had the slowest growth rate in the city after Katrina primarily due to the rising cost of living and high crime in lower income neighborhoods.[164][165][166] In Katrina's aftermath, city government commissioned groups such as Bring New Orleans Back Commission, the New Orleans Neighborhood Rebuilding Plan, the Unified New Orleans Plan, and the Office of Recovery Management to contribute to plans addressing depopulation. Their ideas included shrinking the city'sfootprint from before the storm, incorporating community voices into development plans, and creatinggreen spaces,[162] some of which incited controversy.[167][168]
As of 2010[update], 90.3% of residents age five and older spoke English at home as aprimary language, while 4.8% spoke Spanish, 1.9% Vietnamese, and 1.1% spoke French. In total, 9.7% population age five and older spoke amother language other than English.[172]
Orleans Parish, Louisiana – Racial and ethnic composition Note: the US Census treats Hispanic/Latino as an ethnic category. This table excludes Latinos from the racial categories and assigns them to a separate category. Hispanics/Latinos may be of any race.
Ethnic origins in New OrleansMap of racial distribution in the Greater New Orleans area, 2010 U.S. census. Each dot is 25 people:⬤ White⬤ Black⬤ Asian⬤ Hispanic⬤ Other
Growing into a predominantly Black and African American city by race and ethnicity since 1990,[175] in 2010 the racial and ethnic makeup of New Orleans was 60.2% Black and African American, 33.0%White, 2.9%Asian (1.7% Vietnamese, 0.3% Indian, 0.3% Chinese, 0.1% Filipino, 0.1% Korean), 0.0%Pacific Islander, and 1.7% people oftwo or more races.[179] People ofHispanic or Latino American origin made up 5.3% of the population; 1.3% were Mexican, 1.3% Honduran, 0.4% Cuban, 0.3% Puerto Rican, and 0.3% Nicaraguan. In 2020, the racial and ethnic makeup of the city was 53.61% Black or African American, 31.61%non-Hispanic white, 0.2%American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.03% Pacific Islander, 3.71% multiracial or of another race, and 8.08% Hispanic and Latino American of any race.[173] The growth of the Hispanic and Latino population in New Orleans proper from 2010 to 2020 reflected national demographic trends of diversification throughout regions once predominantly non-Hispanic white.[180] Additionally, the 2020 census revealed the city now has a more diverse population than it did before Katrina, yet 21% fewer people than it had in 2000.[181]
As of 2011[update], the Hispanic and Latino American population had also grown in the Greater New Orleans area alongside Black and African American residents, including inKenner, centralMetairie, andTerrytown in Jefferson Parish and Eastern New Orleans and Mid-City in New Orleans proper.[182]Janet Murguía, president and chief executive officer of theUnidosUS, stated that up to 120,000 Hispanic and Latino Americans workers lived in New Orleans. In June 2007, one study stated that the Hispanic and Latino American population had risen from 15,000, pre-Katrina, to over 50,000.[183]
After Katrina the smallBrazilian American population expanded. Portuguese speakers were the second most numerous group to takeEnglish as a second language classes in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans, after Spanish speakers. Many Brazilians worked in skilled trades such as tile and flooring, although fewer worked as day laborers than other Hispanic and Latino Americans. Many had moved from Brazilian communities in thenortheastern United States, and Florida and Georgia. Brazilians settled throughout the metropolitan area; most were undocumented. In January 2008, the New Orleans Brazilian population had a mid-range estimate of 3,000 people. By 2008, Brazilians had opened many small churches, shops and restaurants catering to their community.[184]
Among the growingAsian American community, the earliestFilipino Americans to live within the city arrived in the early 1800s.[185] The Vietnamese American community grew to become the largest by 2010 as many fled the aftermath of theVietnam War in the 1970s.[186]
Sexual orientation and gender identity
2016 New Orleans Pride
New Orleans and its metropolitan area have historically been popular destinations forlesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender communities.[187][188] In 2015, aGallup survey determined New Orleans was one of the largest cities in the American South with a significant LGBT population.[189][190] Much of the LGBT community in New Orleans lives near the Central Business District, Mid-City, and Uptown; several gay bars and nightclubs are present in those areas.[191]
New Orleans' colonial history of French and Spanish settlement generated a strongRoman Catholic tradition. Catholic missions ministered to slaves and free people of color and established schools for them. In addition, many late 19th and early 20th century European immigrants, such as the Irish, some Germans, and Italians were Catholic. Within theRoman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans (which includes not only the city but the surrounding parishes as well), 40% percent of the population was Roman Catholic since 2016.[192] Catholicism is reflected in French and Spanish cultural traditions, including its manyparochial schools, street names, architecture and festivals, includingMardi Gras. Within the city and metropolitan area,Catholicism is also reflected in the Black and African cultural traditions with Gospel Mass.[193] The statue ofOur Lady of Prompt Succor is a notable symbol of the Catholic faith in New Orleans and throughout Louisiana.
New Orleans displays a distinctive variety ofLouisiana Voodoo, due in part tosyncretism with African and Afro-Caribbean Roman Catholic beliefs. The fame of voodoo practitionerMarie Laveau contributed to this, as did New Orleans' Caribbean cultural influences.[195][196][197] Although the tourism industry strongly associated Voodoo with the city, only a small number of people are serious adherents.
Popp Fountain in City Park, a meeting place for The Religious Order of Witchcraft
New Orleans was also home to the occultistMary Oneida Toups, who was nicknamed the "Witch Queen of New Orleans". Toups' coven, The Religious Order of Witchcraft, was the first coven to be officially recognized as a religious institution by the state of Louisiana.[198] They would meet at Popp Fountain inCity Park.[199]
Jewish settlers, primarilySephardim, settled in New Orleans from the early nineteenth century. Some migrated from the communities established in the colonial years inCharleston, South Carolina andSavannah, Georgia. The merchantAbraham Cohen Labatt helped found the first Jewish congregation in New Orleans in the 1830s, which became known as thePortuguese Jewish Nefutzot Yehudah congregation (he and some other members wereSephardic Jews, whose ancestors had lived in Portugal and Spain).Ashkenazi Jews from eastern Europe immigrated in the late 19th and 20th centuries.
By the beginning of the 21st century, 10,000Jews lived in New Orleans. This number dropped to 7,000 after Hurricane Katrina, but rose again after efforts to incentivize the community's growth resulted in the arrival of about an additional 2,000 Jews.[200] New Orleans synagogues lost members, but most re-opened in their original locations. The exception wasCongregation Beth Israel, the oldest and most prominentOrthodox synagogue in the New Orleans region. Beth Israel's building in Lakeview was destroyed by flooding. After seven years of holding services in temporary quarters, the congregation consecrated a new synagogue on land purchased from theReform Congregation Gates of Prayer inMetairie.[201]
A visible religious minority,[202][203]Muslims constituted 0.6% of the religious population as of 2019 according toSperling's BestPlaces.[204] The Association of Religion Data Archives in 2020 estimated that there were 6,150 Muslims in the city proper. The Islamic demographic in New Orleans and its metropolitan area have been mainly made up of Middle Eastern immigrants andAfrican Americans.
New Orleans is also a center forhigher learning, with over 50,000 students enrolled in the region's eleven two- and four-year degree-granting institutions.Tulane University, a top-50 research university, is located in Uptown. Metropolitan New Orleans is a major regional hub for thehealth care industry and boasts a small, globally competitive manufacturing sector. The center city possesses a rapidly growing, entrepreneurialcreative industries sector and is renowned for itscultural tourism. Greater New Orleans, Inc. (GNO, Inc.)[208] acts as the first point-of-contact for regional economic development, coordinating between Louisiana's Department of Economic Development and the various business development agencies.
Port
New Orleans began as a strategically located tradingentrepôt and it remains, above all, a crucial transportation hub and distribution center for waterborne commerce. ThePort of New Orleans is the fifth-largest in the United States based on cargo volume, and second-largest in the state after thePort of South Louisiana. It is the twelfth-largest in the U.S. based on cargo value. The Port of South Louisiana, also located in the New Orleans area, is the world's busiest in terms of bulk tonnage. When combined with Port of New Orleans, it forms the 4th-largest port system in volume. Many shipbuilding, shipping, logistics, freight forwarding and commodity brokerage firms either are based in metropolitan New Orleans or maintain a local presence. Examples includeIntermarine,[209] Bisso Towboat,[210]Northrop Grumman Ship Systems,[211] Trinity Yachts,Expeditors International,[212] Bollinger Shipyards, IMTT, International Coffee Corp, Boasso America, Transoceanic Shipping, Transportation Consultants Inc., Dupuy Storage & Forwarding and Silocaf.[213] The largest coffee-roasting plant in the world, operated byFolgers, is located inNew Orleans East.[214][215]
New Orleans is located near to theGulf of Mexico and its many oil rigs. Louisiana ranks fifth among states in oil production and eighth inreserves. It has two of the fourStrategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) storage facilities: West Hackberry inCameron Parish and Bayou Choctaw inIberville Parish. The area hosts 17 petroleum refineries, with a combined crude oil distillation capacity of nearly 2.8 million barrels per day (450,000 m3/d), the second highest after Texas. Louisiana's numerous ports include theLouisiana Offshore Oil Port (LOOP), which is capable of receiving the largest oil tankers. Given the quantity of oil imports, Louisiana is home to many major pipelines:Crude Oil (Exxon,Chevron,BP,Texaco,Shell, Scurloch-Permian, Mid-Valley, Calumet,Conoco,Koch Industries,Unocal,U.S. Dept. of Energy, Locap); Product (TEPPCO Partners, Colonial, Plantation, Explorer, Texaco, Collins); andLiquefied Petroleum Gas (Dixie, TEPPCO, Black Lake, Koch, Chevron,Dynegy,Kinder Morgan Energy Partners,Dow Chemical Company, Bridgeline, FMP, Tejas, Texaco, UTP).[216] Several energy companies have regional headquarters in the area, includingShell plc,Eni andChevron. Other energy producers andoilfield services companies are headquartered in the city or region, and the sector supports a large professional services base of specialized engineering and design firms, as well as a term office for the federal government'sMinerals Management Service.
Business
The city is the home to a singleFortune 500 company:Entergy, a power generation utility andnuclear power plant operations specialist.[217] After Katrina, the city lost its other Fortune 500 company,Freeport-McMoRan, when it merged its copper and gold exploration unit with an Arizona company and relocated that division toPhoenix. Its McMoRan Exploration affiliate remains headquartered in New Orleans.[218]
Entrepreneurship is encouraged, with a number of initiatives designed to support small business and start-ups, includingEntrepreneurs' Row and the New Orleans Startup Fund.[219]
Tourist and convention business
Tourism is a staple of the city's economy. Perhaps more visible than any other sector, New Orleans' tourist and convention industry is a $5.5 billion industry that accounts for 40 percent of city tax revenues. In 2004, the hospitality industry employed 85,000 people, making it the city's top economic sector as measured by employment.[220] New Orleans also hosts the World Cultural Economic Forum (WCEF). The forum, held annually at theNew Orleans Morial Convention Center, is directed toward promoting cultural and economic development opportunities through the strategic convening of cultural ambassadors and leaders from around the world. The first WCEF took place in October 2008.[221]
New Orleans has many visitor attractions, from the world-renowned French Quarter toSt. Charles Avenue, (home of Tulane and Loyola universities, the historicPontchartrain Hotel and many 19th-century mansions) toMagazine Street with its boutique stores and antique shops.
According to current travel guides, New Orleans is one of the top ten most-visited cities in the United States; 10.1 million visitors came to New Orleans in 2004.[220][222] Prior to Katrina, 265 hotels with 38,338 rooms operated in the Greater New Orleans Area. In May 2007, that had declined to some 140 hotels and motels with over 31,000 rooms.[223]
A 2009Travel + Leisure poll of "America's Favorite Cities" ranked New Orleans first in ten categories, the most first-place rankings of the 30 cities included. According to the poll, New Orleans was the best U.S. city as a spring break destination and for "wild weekends", stylish boutique hotels, cocktail hours, singles/bar scenes, live music/concerts and bands, antique and vintage shops, cafés/coffee bars, neighborhood restaurants, andpeople watching. The city ranked second for: friendliness (behindCharleston, South Carolina),gay-friendliness (behind San Francisco),bed and breakfast hotels/inns, and ethnic food. However, the city placed near the bottom in cleanliness, safety and as a family destination.[224][225]
The New Orleans area is home to numerous annual celebrations. The most well known isCarnival, orMardi Gras. Carnival officially begins on theFeast of the Epiphany, also known in some Christian traditions as the "Twelfth Night" of Christmas.Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday"), the final and grandest day of traditional Catholic festivities, is the last Tuesday before theChristian liturgical season ofLent, which commences onAsh Wednesday.
The largest of the city's many music festivals is theNew Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. Commonly referred to simply as "Jazz Fest", it is one of the nation's largest music festivals. The festival features a variety of music, including both native Louisiana and international artists. Along with Jazz Fest, New Orleans'Voodoo Experience ("Voodoo Fest") and theEssence Music Festival also feature local and international artists.
In 2002, Louisiana began offering tax incentives for film and television production. This has resulted in a substantial increase in activity and brought the nickname of "Hollywood South" for New Orleans. Films produced in and around the city includeRay,Runaway Jury,The Pelican Brief,Glory Road,All the King's Men,Déjà Vu,Last Holiday,The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,12 Years a Slave, andProject Power. In 2006, work began on the Louisiana Film & Television studio complex, based in theTremé neighborhood.[226] Louisiana began to offer similar tax incentives for music and theater productions in 2007, and some commentators began to refer to New Orleans as "Broadway South".[227]
The first theatre in New Orleans was the French-languageTheatre de la Rue Saint Pierre, which opened in 1792. The first opera in New Orleans was performed there in 1796. In the nineteenth century, the city was the home of two of America's most important venues forFrench opera, theThéâtre d'Orléans and later theFrench Opera House. Today, opera is performed by theNew Orleans Opera. TheMarigny Opera House is home to the Marigny Opera Ballet and also hosts opera, jazz, and classical music performances.
New Orleans has long been a significant center for music, showcasing its intertwined European, African and Latino American cultures. The city's unique musical heritage was born in its colonial and early American days from a unique blending of European musical instruments with African rhythms. As the only North American city to have allowedslaves to gather in public and play their native music (largely inCongo Square, now located withinLouis Armstrong Park), New Orleans gave birth in the early 20th century to an epochal indigenous music:jazz. Soon, African Americanbrass bands formed, beginning a century-long tradition. The Louis Armstrong Park area, near the French Quarter inTremé, contains theNew Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. The city's music was later also significantly influenced byAcadiana, home ofCajun andZydeco music, and byDelta blues.
New Orleans' unique musical culture is on display in its traditional funerals. A spin on military funerals, New Orleans' traditional funerals feature sad music (mostlydirges andhymns) in processions on the way to the cemetery and happier music (hot jazz) on the way back. Until the 1990s, most locals preferred to call these "funerals with music". Visitors to the city have long dubbed them "jazz funerals".
Much later in its musical development, New Orleans was home to a distinctive brand ofrhythm and blues that contributed greatly to the growth ofrock and roll. An example of the New Orleans' sound in the 1960s is the No. 1 U.S. hit "Chapel of Love" bythe Dixie Cups, a song which knockedthe Beatles out of the top spot on theBillboard Hot 100. New Orleans became a hotbed forfunk music in the 1960s and 1970s, and by the late 1980s, it had developed its own localized variant ofhip hop, calledbounce music. While not commercially successful outside of theDeep South, bounce music was immensely popular in poorer neighborhoods throughout the 1990s.
New Orleans is world-famous for its cuisine. The indigenous cuisine is distinctive and influential. New Orleans food combined local Creole, haute Creole and New Orleans French cuisines. Local ingredients, French, Spanish, Italian, African, Native American, Cajun, Chinese, and a hint of Cuban traditions combine to produce a truly unique and easily recognizable New Orleans flavor.
New Orleans is known for specialties includingbeignets (locally pronounced like "ben-yays"), square-shaped fried dough that could be called "French doughnuts" (served withcafé au lait made with a blend of coffee and chicory rather than only coffee); andpo' boy[232] and Italianmuffuletta sandwiches; Gulf oysters on the half-shell, fried oysters, boiledcrawfish and otherseafood;étouffée,jambalaya,gumbo and other Creole dishes; and the Monday favorite ofred beans and rice (Louis Armstrong often signed his letters, "Red beans and ricely yours"). Another New Orleans specialty is thepralinelocally/ˈprɑːliːn/, a candy made with brown sugar, granulated sugar, cream, butter, and pecans. The city offers notable street food[233] including the Asian inspired beefYaka mein.
Café du Monde, a landmark New Orleans beignet cafe established in 1862
New Orleans developed a distinctive local dialect that is neitherCajun English nor the stereotypicalSouthern accent that is often misportrayed by film and television actors. Like earlier Southern Englishes, it features frequentdeletion of the pre-consonantal "r", though the local white dialect also came to be quite similar toNew York accents.[234] No consensus describes how this happened, but it likely resulted from New Orleans' geographic isolation by water and the fact that the city was a major immigration port throughout the 19th century and early 20th century. Specifically, many members of European immigrant families originally raised in the cities of the Northeast, namely New York, moved to New Orleans during this time frame, bringing their Northeastern accents along with theirIrish,Italian (especiallySicilian),German, andJewish culture.[235]
One of the strongest varieties of the New Orleans accent is sometimes identified as theYat dialect, from the greeting "Where y'at?" This distinctive accent is dying out in the city, but remains strong in the surrounding parishes.
Less visibly, various ethnic groups throughout the area have retained distinct language traditions. The French-speaking community has had a cultural center, theAlliance Française of New Orleans, since 1984.[236] The association is a chapter of the internationalAlliance Française organization and promotes French language and culture in New Orleans and the surrounding region. Since Louisiana became the first U.S. state to join theOrganisation Internationale de la Francophonie in 2018, New Orleans has reemerged as an important center for the state's francophone and creolophone cultures and languages, as seen in new organizations such as the Nous Foundation.[237] Although rare,Louisiana French andLouisiana Creole are still spoken in the city. There is also Louisiana-Canarian Spanish dialect, theIsleño Spanish, spoken by theIsleño people and older members of the population.
TheCaesars Superdome is the home of the Saints, the Sugar Bowl, and other prominent events. It has hosted theSuper Bowl a record eight times (1978,1981,1986,1990,1997,2002,2013, and2025). TheSmoothie King Center is the home of the Pelicans, VooDoo, and many events that are not large enough to need the Superdome. New Orleans is also home to theFair Grounds Race Course, the nation's third-oldest thoroughbred track. The city'sLakefront Arena has also been home to sporting events.
The city of New Orleans is a political subdivision of the U.S. state of Louisiana. The city and theparish of Orleans operate as a mergedcity-parish government.[246] The original city was composed of what are now the 1st through 9th wards. The city ofLafayette (including the Garden District) was added in 1852 as the 10th and 11th wards. In 1870, Jefferson City, including Faubourg Bouligny and much of the Audubon and University areas, was annexed as the 12th, 13th, and 14th wards.Algiers, on the west bank of the Mississippi, was also annexed in 1870, becoming the 15th ward.
New Orleans' government is largely centralized in the city council and mayor's office, but it maintains earlier systems from when various sections of the city managed their affairs separately. For example, New Orleans had seven elected tax assessors, each with their own staff, representing various districts of the city, rather than one centralized office. A constitutional amendment passed on November 7, 2006, consolidated the seven assessors into one in 2010.[247]
New Orleans is the only city in Louisiana that refuses to pay court-ordered judgments when it loses a case that were awarded to the other party.[249] The city uses a provision in the Louisiana Constitution that prohibits the seizure of a city's property to pay a judgment when it loses a lawsuit. According to an article, "The constitution says the funds can't be seized and can only be paid out if the government appropriates the money. In other words, if the City of New Orleans doesn't budget the funds for judgments, no judge can force the city to pay."[250] Only if the city council chooses to vote to pay a judgment can the other party be paid. Since the city cannot be forced to pay judgments unless it chooses to do so, it simply does not pay. More than $36 million in over 500 unpaid judgments issued against the city are simply ignored, some going as far back as 1996.[251]
The Orleans Parish Civil Sheriff's Officeserves papers involving lawsuits, provides court security, and operates the city's correctional facilities, includingOrleans Parish Prison. The sheriff's office shares legal jurisdiction with theNew Orleans Police Department and provides it with backup on an as-needed basis. Before 2010, New Orleans (and all other parishes in Louisiana) had separate criminal and civil sheriff's offices, corresponding to the separate criminal and civil courts: these were merged in 2010 by Louisiana Revised Statute 33:1500.[252] As of 2024[update] the sheriff isSusan Hutson, who defeated 17-year incumbent Marlin Gusman in the 2021 New Orleans City Election.[253][254]
Crime is a notable ongoing problem in New Orleans. As in comparable U.S. cities, the incidence of homicide and other violent crimes is usually highly concentrated in certain lower income neighborhoods.[255] Arrested offenders in New Orleans are almost exclusively black males fromimpoverished communities: in 2011, 97% were black and 95% were male; 91% of victims were black as well.[256] The city's murder rate has been historically high and consistently among the highest rates nationwide since the 1970s. From 1994 to 2013, New Orleans was the country's "Murder Capital", annually averaging over 200 murders.[257] The first record was broken in 1979 when the city reached 242 homicides.[257] The record was broken again reaching 250 by 1989 to 345 by the end of 1991.[258][259] By 1993, New Orleans had 395 murders: 80.5 for every 100,000 residents.[260] In 1994, the city was officially named the "Murder Capital of America", hitting a historic peak of 424 murders. The murder count was one of the highest in the world and surpassed that of such cities asGary, Indiana,Washington, D.C., andBaltimore.[261][262][263][264] In 1999, the city's murder rate dropped down to a low of 158 and climbed to the high 200s in the early 2000s. Between 2000 and 2004, New Orleans had the highest homicide rate per capita of any city in the U.S., with 59 people killed per year per 100,000 citizens.[265][266][267][263]
In 2006, with nearly half the population gone and widespread disruption and dislocation because of deaths and refugee relocations fromHurricane Katrina, the city hit another record of homicides. It was ranked as the most dangerous city in the country.[268][269] By 2009, there was a 17% decrease in violent crime, a decrease seen in other cities across the country. But the homicide rate remained among the highest[270] in the United States, at between 55 and 64 per 100,000 residents.[271] In 2010, New Orleans' homicide rate dropped to 49.1 per 100,000, but increased again in 2012, to 53.2,[272] the highest rate among cities of 250,000 population or larger.[273]
The violent crime rate is a key issue in every modern mayoral race. In January 2007, several thousand New Orleans residents marched to City Hall for a rally demanding police and city leaders tackle the crime problem. Then-MayorRay Nagin said he was "totally and solely focused" on addressing the problem. Later, the city implemented checkpoints during late night hours in problem areas.[274] The murder rate climbed 14% in 2011 to 57.88 per 100,000[275] rising to No. 21 in the world.[276] In 2016, according to annual crime statistics released by the New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), 176 were murdered.[277][278] In 2017, New Orleans had the highest rate of gun violence, surpassing the more populatedChicago andDetroit.[279][280] In 2020, murders increased 68% from 2019 with a total of 202 murders. Criminal justice observers blamed impacts fromCOVID-19 and changes in police strategies for the uptick.[281][282] In 2022, New Orleans' homicide rate skyrocketed, leading every major city, hence the city again being declared as the "Murder Capital of America". The 2022 city homicide count increased to 280 which was a 26-year high.[283][284] The NOPD dropped to under 1,000 officers in 2022 which meant the department was severely understaffed for the city's population.[285] NOPD is actively working to reduce violent crime by offering attractive incentives to recruit and retain more officers.[286]
Education
Colleges and universities
A view of Gibson Hall at Tulane University
New Orleans has the highest concentration of colleges and universities in Louisiana and one of the highest in the Southern United States. New Orleans also has the third highest concentration ofhistorically black collegiate institutions in the U.S.
University of New OrleansXavier University of Louisiana, 2019
Colleges and universities based within the city include:
Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB), also known as New Orleans Public Schools (NOPS), is the public school district for the entire city.[287] Katrina was a watershed moment for the school system. Pre-Katrina, NOPS was one of the area's largest systems (along with theJefferson Parish public school system). It was also the lowest-performing school district in Louisiana. According to researchersCarl L. Bankston and Stephen J. Caldas, only 12 of the 103 public schools within the city limits showed reasonably good performance.[288]
Following Hurricane Katrina, the state of Louisiana took over most of the schools within the system (all schools that matched a nominal "worst-performing" metric). Many of these schools (and others) were subsequently granted operating charters giving them administrative independence from the Orleans Parish School Board, theRecovery School District or theLouisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE). At the start of the 2014 school year, all public school students in the NOPS system attended these independentpublic charter schools, the nation's first to do so.[289]
The charter schools made significant and sustained gains in student achievement, led by outside operators such asKIPP, the Algiers Charter School Network, and the Capital One–University of New Orleans Charter School Network. An October 2009 assessment demonstrated continued growth in the academic performance of public schools. Considering the scores of all public schools in New Orleans gives an overall school district performance score of 70.6. This score represents a 24% improvement over an equivalent pre-Katrina (2004) metric, when a district score of 56.9 was posted.[290] Notably, this score of 70.6 approaches the score (78.4) posted in 2009 by the adjacent, suburbanJefferson Parish public school system, though that system's performance score is itself below the state average of 91.[291]
TheNew Orleans Public Library operates in 13 locations.[296] The main library includes a Louisiana Division that houses city archives and special collections.[297]
An independently operated lending library calledIron Rail Book Collective specializes in radical and hard-to-find books. The library contains over 8,000 titles and is open to the public.
TheLouisiana Historical Association was founded in New Orleans in 1889. It operated first at Howard Memorial Library. A separate Memorial Hall for it was later added to Howard Library, designed by New Orleans architectThomas Sully.[300]
Historically, the major newspaper in the area wasThe Times-Picayune. The paper made headlines of its own in 2012 when ownerAdvance Publications cut its print schedule to three days each week, instead focusing its efforts on its website, NOLA.com. That action briefly made New Orleans the largest city in the country without a daily newspaper, until theBaton Rouge newspaperThe Advocate began a New Orleans edition in September 2012. In June 2013, theTimes-Picayune resumed daily printing with a condensednewsstandtabloid edition, nicknamedTP Street, which is published on the three days each week that its namesakebroadsheet edition is not printed (the Picayune has not returned to daily delivery). With the resumption of daily print editions from theTimes-Picayune and the launch of the New Orleans edition ofThe Advocate, nowThe New Orleans Advocate, the city had two daily newspapers for the first time since the afternoonStates-Item ceased publication on May 31, 1980. In 2019, the papers merged to formThe Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate.
In addition to the daily newspaper, weekly publications includeThe Louisiana Weekly andGambit Weekly.[301] Also in wide circulation is theClarion Herald, the newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans.
Greater New Orleans is the 54th largestdesignated market area (DMA) in the U.S., serving at least 566,960 homes.[302] Major television network affiliates serving the area include:
WWOZ,[303] the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Station, broadcasts[304] modern and traditional jazz, blues, rhythm and blues, brass band,gospel,cajun,zydeco, Caribbean, Latin, Brazilian, African and bluegrass 24 hours per day.
WTUL is Tulane University's radio station.[305] Its programming includes 20th century classical, reggae, jazz, showtunes, indie rock, electronic music, soul/funk, goth, punk, hip hop, New Orleans music, opera, folk, hardcore,Americana, country, blues, Latin, cheese, techno, local, world, ska, swing and big band, kids' shows, and news programming. WTUL is listener-supported and non-commercial. The disc jockeys are volunteers, many of them college students.
Tworadio stations that were influential in promoting New Orleans–based bands and singers were 50,000-wattWNOE (1060) and 10,000-wattWTIX (690 AM). These two stations competed head-to-head from the late 1950s to the late 1970s.
Transportation
Public transportation
Hurricane Katrina devastated transit service in 2005. The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (RTA) was quicker to restore the streetcars to service, while bus service had only been restored to 35% of pre-Katrina levels as recently as the end of 2013. During the same period, streetcars arrived at an average of once every seventeen minutes, compared to bus frequencies of once every thirty-eight minutes. The same priority was demonstrated in RTA's spending, increasing the proportion of its budget devoted to streetcars to more than three times compared to its pre-Katrina budget.[310] Through the end of 2017, counting both streetcar and bus trips, only 51% of service had been restored to pre-Katrina levels.[311]
In 2017, the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority began operation on the extension of the Rampart–St. Claude streetcar line. Another change to transit service that year was the re-routing of the 15 Freret and 28 Martin Luther King bus routes to Canal Street. These increased the number of jobs accessible by a thirty-minute walk or transit ride: from 83,722 in 2016 to 89,216 in 2017. This resulted in a regional increase in such job access by more than a full percentage point.[311]
Streetcars
A New Orleansstreetcar traveling down Canal StreetStreetcar network
TheSt. Charles Streetcar Line is the oldest continuously operating streetcar line in the U.S.[312] The line first operated as local rail service in 1835 between Carrollton and downtown New Orleans. Operated by the Carrollton & New Orleans R.R. Co., the locomotives were then powered by steam engines, and a one-way fare cost 25 cents.[313] Each car is a historic landmark. It runs from Canal Street to the other end of St. Charles Avenue, then turns right into South Carrollton Avenue to its terminal at Carrollton and Claiborne.
TheRiverfront Streetcar Line runs parallel to the river from Esplanade Street through the French Quarter to Canal Street to the Convention Center above Julia Street in the Arts District.
TheCanal Streetcar Line uses the Riverfront line tracks from the intersection of Canal Street and Poydras Street, down Canal Street, then branches off and ends at the cemeteries at City Park Avenue, with a spur running from the intersection of Canal and Carrollton Avenue to the entrance of City Park at Esplanade, near the entrance to the New Orleans Museum of Art.
TheRampart–Loyola Streetcar Line opened on January 28, 2013, as theLoyola-UPT Streetcar Line running along Loyola Avenue fromNew Orleans Union Passenger Terminal to Canal Street, then continuing along Canal Street to the river, and on weekends on the Riverfront line tracks to French Market. The French Quarter Rail Expansion extended the line from the Loyola Avenue/Canal Street intersection along Rampart Street and St. Claude Avenue to Elysian Fields Avenue. It no longer runs along Canal Street to the river, or on weekends on the Riverfront line tracks to French Market.
Ferries connecting New Orleans withAlgiers (left) and Gretna (right)
New Orleans has had continuous ferry service since 1827,[317] operating three routes as of 2017. TheCanal Street Ferry (or Algiers Ferry) connects downtown New Orleans at the foot ofCanal Street with theNational Historic Landmark District ofAlgiers Point across the Mississippi ("West Bank" in local parlance). It services passenger vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. This same terminal also serves the Canal Street/Gretna Ferry, connectingGretna, Louisiana for pedestrians and bicyclists only. A third auto/bicycle/pedestrian connectsChalmette, Louisiana and Lower Algiers.[318]
Bicycling
The city's flat landscape, simple street grid and mild winters facilitatebicycle ridership, helping to make New Orleans eighth among U.S. cities in its rate of bicycle andpedestrian transportation as of 2010,[319] and sixth in terms of the percentage of bicycling commuters.[320] New Orleans is located at the start of theMississippi River Trail, a 3,000-mile (4,800 km) bicycle path that stretches from the city'sAudubon Park toMinnesota.[321] Since Katrina the city has actively sought to promote bicycling by constructing a $1.5 million bike trail fromMid-City toLake Pontchartrain,[322] and by adding over 37 miles (60 km) ofbicycle lanes to various streets, includingSt. Charles Avenue.[319] In 2009,Tulane University contributed to these efforts by converting the main street through itsUptown campus,McAlister Place, into apedestrian mall open to bicycle traffic.[323] TheLafitte Greenway bicycle and pedestrian trail opened in 2015, and is ultimately planned to extend 3.1-mile (5.0 km) from the French Quarter to Lakeview. New Orleans has been recognized for its abundance of uniquely decorated and uniquely designed bicycles.[324]
New Orleans is served byInterstate 10,Interstate 610 andInterstate 510. I-10 travels east–west through the city as thePontchartrain Expressway. InNew Orleans East it is known as the Eastern Expressway. I-610 provides a direct shortcut for traffic passing through New Orleans via I-10, allowing that traffic to bypass I-10's southward curve.
In addition to the interstates,U.S. 90 travels through the city, whileU.S. 61 terminates downtown. In addition,U.S. 11 terminates in the eastern portion of the city.
New Orleans is home to many bridges;Crescent City Connection is perhaps the most notable. It serves as New Orleans' major bridge across the Mississippi, providing a connection between the city's downtown on the eastbank and its westbank suburbs. Other Mississippi crossings are theHuey P. Long Bridge, carrying U.S. 90 and theHale Boggs Memorial Bridge, carryingInterstate 310.
The tolledLake Pontchartrain Causeway, consisting of two parallel bridges are, at 24 miles (39 km) long, the longest bridges in the world. Built in the 1950s (southbound span) and 1960s (northbound span), the bridges connect New Orleans with its suburbs on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain viaMetairie.
Taxi service
United Cab is the city's largest taxi service, with a fleet of over 300 cabs.[325] It has operated 365 days a year since its establishment in 1938, with the exception of the month afterHurricane Katrina, in which operations were temporarily shut down due to disruptions in radio service.[326]
United Cab's fleet was once larger than 450 cabs, but has been reduced in recent years due to competition from services likeUber andLyft, according to owner Syed Kazmi.[325] In January 2016, New Orleans-based sweet shop Sucré approached United Cab with to deliver itsking cakes locally on-demand. Sucré saw this partnership as a way to alleviate some of the financial pressure being placed on taxi services due to Uber's presence in the city.[327]
Armstrong International is the busiest airport in Louisiana and the only to handle scheduled international passenger flights. As of 2018, more than 13 million passengers passed through Armstrong, on nonstops flights from more than 57 destinations, including foreign nonstops from the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Mexico, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic.
Rail
The city is served byAmtrak. TheNew Orleans Union Passenger Terminal is the central rail depot and is served by theCrescent, operating between New Orleans and New York City; theCity of New Orleans, operating between New Orleans and Chicago and theSunset Limited, operating between New Orleans and Los Angeles. Up until August 2005 (whenHurricane Katrina struck), theSunset Limited's route continued east to Orlando.
According to the 2016American Community Survey, 67.4% of working city of New Orleans residents commuted by driving alone, 9.7% carpooled, 7.3% used public transportation, and 4.9% walked. About 5% used all other forms of transportation, including taxicab, motorcycle, and bicycle. About 5.7% of working New Orleans residents worked at home.[328]
Many city of New Orleans households own no personal automobiles. In 2015, 18.8% of New Orleans households were without a car, which increased to 20.2% in 2016. The national average was 8.7 percent in 2016. New Orleans averaged 1.26 cars per household in 2016, compared to a national average of 1.8 per household.[329]
New Orleans ranks high among cities in terms of the percentage of working residents who commute by walking or bicycling. In 2013, 5% of working people from New Orleans commuted by walking and 2.8% commuted by cycling. During the same period, New Orleans ranked thirteenth for percentage of workers who commuted by walking or biking among cities not included within the fifty most populous cities. Only nine of the most fifty most populous cities had a higher percentage of commuters who walked or biked than did New Orleans in 2013.[330]
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^Official records for New Orleans have been kept at MSY since May 1, 1946.[125] Additional records from Audubon Park dating back to 1893 have also been included.
^Sunshine normals are based on only 20 to 22 years of data.
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Simmons, LaKisha Michelle.Crescent City Girls: The Lives of Young Black Women in Segregated New Orleans. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2015.
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