Is New Orleans still growing, and is it still just Katrina recovery? (Many: transplants)

[magnoliashorty]

For the last 10+ years, New Orleans' population has grown every year, mainly due to the effect of people who left after Katrina moving back. Is the population still increasing? If so, is it still mainly former residents returning, or is the growth driven by new arrivals now?
Also: when do you predict the city will match, or surpass, its pre-Katrina population?

[annie_himself]

I would say it's mostly transplants.

[WhoDatInMD]

I would also say it's mostly transplants. I know many who left the city because of Katrina and either want to move back but don't have the funds/opportunities to move back or have found better opportunities wherever they relocated too. I recently chopped it up with an old HS classmate up here who I recently found has been in the DC area since right after Katrina. He and his wife came here after staying in Houston for a week and running out of money. She had family up here who helped them get nice jobs with the federal govt compared to the low wage jobs they had in NO. They're now doing much well off than they would have been in NO but talk of moving back to NO to retire. This is the case for a few others that I know of also.

[norb123]

I agree with Annie and Whodat. Many of the people l meet here now are from somewhere else. I remember when I first moved here before Katrina, I felt like the only person in the city from somewhere else. Everyone I met was born and raised here... Or maybe it just seemed like that because I was coming from South Florida, where everyone is a transplant.