Neighborhood Statistical Areas

In 1980 the New Orleans City Planning Commission, for planning and decision-making purposes, divided the city into Census Tract based 'neighborhoods'. Additional neighborhoods were created after the 1990 and 2000 Censuses. Following Hurricane Katrina the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center (GNOCDC) settled on these boundaries to facilitate the use of local data in decision-making. These neighborhoods underwent further change during the 2010 Census due to modifications (consolidation and/or splitting) of Census Tracts. The resulting boundaries were renamed as 'Neighborhood Statistical Areas' to reflect their actual function. Census Tracts are small, relatively permanent statistical subdivisions of a county or statistically equivalent entity delineated by local participants as part of the U.S. Census Bureau's Participant Statistical Areas Program. The primary purpose of Census Tracts is to provide a stable set of geographic units for the presentation of decennial census data.