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This information is pre-Katrina. Although the information on this page is out-of-date, we are continuing to make it available, as it provides insight about this neighborhood pre-Katrina. You may find outdated information and broken links. For current data about New Orleans and its neighborhoods, visit our homepage.

Desire Development Neighborhood: People & Household Characteristics

Data Tables: People & Household Characteristics, Housing & Housing Costs, Income & Poverty, Transportation, Employment, Educational Attainment, Immigration & Language, Disabilities, Neighborhood Characteristics

Finding the information you need within long rows of numbers is a tricky task, even under the best of conditions. When the terms used by the U.S. Census are different from everyday usage, the task becomes even harder.

For this reason, we've added a variety of side notes to these data tables, as well as links to the technical definition for each indicator. Our aim is to explain definitions that are sometimes misleading, and also to point you to additional information that you may find useful for program planning and grantwriting.

Definitions and source links
Total numbers (2000)		Desire Development	Orleans Parish	Louisiana	United States
Population		660	484,674	4,468,976	281,421,906
Total households		189	188,251	1,656,053	105,480,101
	Family households	162	112,977	1,156,438	71,787,347
Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Full-count Characteristics (SF1). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org> What's the difference between households and families? The Census definition of family is people living together who are “related... by birth, marriage, or adoption.” In contrast, the definition of household is “all the persons who occupy a housing unit.” Basic demographics Definitions and source links
Gender (2000)		Desire Development	Orleans Parish	Louisiana	United States
Female		56.8%	53.1%	51.6%	50.9%
Male		43.2%	46.9%	48.4%	49.1%
Age (2000)		Desire Development	Orleans Parish	Louisiana	United States
5 years old and under		10.2%	8.4%	8.5%	8.2%
6-11 years old		11.8%	9.2%	9.2%	8.9%
12-17 years old		18.0%	9.1%	9.5%	8.6%
18-34 years old		23.6%	25.9%	24.3%	23.8%
35-49 years old		17.0%	21.9%	22.5%	23.2%
50-64 years old		10.9%	13.8%	14.5%	14.9%
65-74 years old		4.4%	6.0%	6.3%	6.5%
75-84 years old		3.6%	4.2%	3.9%	4.4%
85 years old and older		0.5%	1.5%	1.3%	1.5%
Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Full-count Characteristics (SF1). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org> Race and ethnicity Definitions and source links
Racial & ethnic diversity (2000)		Desire Development	Orleans Parish	Louisiana	United States
Black or African American		98.1%	66.6%	32.3%	12.1%
White		0.0%	26.6%	62.6%	69.2%
Asian		0.8%	2.3%	1.2%	3.6%
American Indian		0.0%	0.2%	0.5%	0.7%
Other		0.0%	0.2%	0.1%	0.3%
2 race categories		0.9%	1.0%	0.9%	1.6%
Hispanic (any race)		0.2%	3.1%	2.4%	12.5%
Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Full-count Characteristics (SF1). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org> Note on the category of Hispanic: To assist in local analysis, we recalculated the ethnicity Hispanic to make it comparable to the Census' racial categories. To learn more, read this short article Race & Ethnicity in the Census. How does racial diversity of the Desire Development neighborhood compare to other Orleans neighborhoods? In order to better visualize patterns of racial segregation in New Orleans, we mapped percent of population of different races by Census block group. (A block group is smaller than a neighborhood, and typically contains between 600 and 3,000 people.) Looking at this information by block group allows one to not only analyze racial composition across neighborhoods, but also look at smaller patterns of segregation within a given neighborhood. On the maps linked below, you'll see the Desire Development neighborhood highlighted in orange. View maps of racial composition in the Desire Development and the whole city...   If you want to conduct a more thorough analysis of the patterns of residential segregation across all Orleans neighborhoods, follow this link. The percentages in these maps come from the number of people who checked either African American, White, Hispanic or Asian on their 2000 Census form. Marital status and other partnerships The Census depends primarily on self-reported marital status. Married, for example, includes couples who live together who chose this category to represent their relationship. But many respondents may have indicated only their legally-recognized marital status. The limited number of categories offered by the Census does not capture living arrangements such as unmarried opposite-sex or same-sex couples. Definitions and source links
Marital status (2000)		Desire Development	Orleans Parish	Louisiana	United States
Total population 15 years and older		484	377,648	3,466,380	221,148,671
	Never married	67.1%	41.0%	28.6%	27.1%
	Married	8.7%	35.5%	51.2%	54.4%
	Separated	8.3%	3.6%	2.6%	2.2%
	Widowed	7.6%	8.1%	7.4%	6.6%
	Divorced	8.3%	11.8%	10.2%	9.7%
Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Sample Characteristics (SF3). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org> Note on same-sex unmarried partners: For the first time, Census 2000 asked a series of questions that allowed, theoretically, for a count of households with same-sex couples. In practice, however, these data and their interpretation are complex and potentially flawed. If you would like assistance obtaining and using this data, please fill out a data request through Ask Allison. Household Characteristics Which number do you need? There are many ways to look at household characteristics. To get a more complete perspective, we recommend you take a look at households by type, and also scroll down to view data on what types of households children and the elderly live in. Note, we have chosen to look at 'households' rather than 'families' because of the Census' narrow definition of 'family.' Definitions and source links
Households by type (2000)		Desire Development	Orleans Parish	Louisiana	United States
Total households		189	188,251	1,656,053	105,480,101
Female householder (no husband present) with children under 18		49.2%	17.7%	11.9%	8.4%
Male householder (no wife present) with children under 18		3.2%	2.5%	2.6%	2.4%
Married-couple family, with children under 18		6.3%	14.8%	24.3%	24.9%
Nonfamily households, with children under 18		0.0%	0.3%	0.4%	0.4%
Households with no people under 18 years		41.3%	64.7%	60.8%	63.9%
Children in households (2000)		Desire Development	Orleans Parish	Louisiana	United States
Population under 18 years in households		264	128,785	1,214,204	71,970,901
	Children living as head of household	0.0%	0.1%	0.1%	0.1%
	Children living with mother only	47.0%	39.2%	24.6%	18.5%
	Children living with father only	2.3%	4.7%	4.8%	4.9%
	Children living with married parents	8.3%	35.9%	57.0%	66.2%
	Children living with grandparents	37.1%	14.9%	9.7%	6.3%
	Children living with other relatives	3.0%	3.7%	2.2%	2.1%
	Children living with non-relatives	2.3%	1.5%	1.6%	1.9%
Elderly in households (2000)		Desire Development	Orleans Parish	Louisiana	United States
Elderly in households		56	53,375	485,182	32,998,132
	Living alone	19.6%	34.2%	30.7%	29.5%
	Living in family households	78.6%	62.6%	67.2%	68.0%
	Living in nonfamily households	1.8%	3.2%	2.1%	2.5%
Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Full-count Characteristics (SF1). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org> Who’s watching the kids? One way of understanding children who might be in need of childcare or out-of-school-time care is to look at whether or not the parent or parents all work. If all parents (meaning if it is a single mom, she works or if there are two parents, they both work), then the child is more likely to need supervised activities – either with another adult caretaker or through organized activities during the times the parents are working. While this does not capture the many creative caregiving arrangements families use (such as one sister in the family who watches her three sisters’ children), it does create a starting point for planning out-of-school program needs. Definitions and source links
Supervision of children (2000)		Desire Development	Orleans Parish	Louisiana	United States
Total children under 6 in families and subfamilies		62	35,533	353,949	21,833,613
	Children under 6 in families where both parents or the single parent works	80.6%	62.6%	59.1%	58.6%
	Children under 6 in families where at least one parent does not work	19.4%	37.4%	40.9%	41.4%
Total children 6-17 in families and subfamilies		234	79,338	772,612	46,049,013
	Children 6-17 in families where both parents or the single parent works	83.3%	65.5%	64.9%	67.4%
	Children 6-17 in families where at least one parent does not work	16.7%	34.5%	35.1%	32.6%
Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Sample Characteristics (SF3). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org> Grandparents as caregivers Recently, there has been a lot of interest in understanding the role of grandparents as caregivers. Census 2000 data focuses on the number of grandparents who have responsibility for a grandchild (or grandchildren) in the household they live in, but does not give us information on the number of children who have grandparents as caregivers. Definitions and source links
Grandparents as caregivers (2000)		Desire Development	Orleans Parish	Louisiana	United States
Total grandparents living in households with grandchildren under 18		43	17,338	122,240	5,771,671
	Grandparent responsible for grandchildren under 18	88.4%	54.7%	54.9%	42.0%
	Grandparent not responsible for own grandchildren under 18	11.6%	45.3%	45.1%	58.0%
Source Citation: U.S. Census Bureau. Census 2000 Sample Characteristics (SF3). From a compilation by the GNO Community Data Center. <http://www.gnocdc.org>

Download this pre-Katrina data for all 73 neighborhoods in Orleans Parish.

Data Tables: People & Household Characteristics, Housing & Housing Costs, Income & Poverty, Transportation, Employment, Educational Attainment, Immigration & Language, Disabilities, Neighborhood Characteristics

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