The Facts

Overall population: Five years after Katrina, the most liberal estimates are that 141,000 fewer people live in the metro New Orleans area.

Displaced People: Louisiana residents are located in more than 5,500 cities across the nation.

Lost Housing: More than 1 in 4 residential addresses in New Orleans is vacant or blighted - by far the highest rate in the US.

Over 5000 families are on the waiting list for traditional public housing and another 28,960 families are on the waiting list for housing vouchers - more than double what it was before Katrina. 

Rebuilding: At least 19,746 applications for rebuilding homes that are eligible for funding have not received any money from the Road Home Program grant program. 

Economic Health: The metro area has 95,000 fewer jobs than before Katrina, down about 16 percent. Black and Latino households earn incomes that are $26,000 (44 percent) and $15,000 (25 percent) lower than whites.

New Orleans has a poverty rate of 23 percent more than double the national average of 11%. Within New Orleans the majority of households are lower-income. 

Public and Private Education: The number of students in public schools in New Orleans, which are over 90 percent African American, has declined by 43% since Katrina.

New Orleans now has more charter schools than any other public school system in the country. Of the 89 public schools in New Orleans, 48, more than half, are charter schools. 

People Receiving Public Assistance: Over one-third of Social Security recipients who lived in New Orleans have not returned. Medicaid recipients have declined by 31%:

Supplemental Security Income recipients are down from pre-Katrina 26,654 to 16,514 - a 38% decline. Source: 

Public Transportation: Total ridership declined down 65.7%. From over 33 million in 2004 to about 13 million projected for 2010. 

Oil Damage: There have been at least 348 intentional fires set in the Gulf of Mexico, controlled burns they call them, since spill.

About 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersant have been dumped into the Gulf, over a million on the surface and about 750,000 gallons sub-sea.

About 210 million gallons of oil (5 million barrels) were released by the BP spill. Wetland destruction

All information is from  Bill Quigley and The Pain Index 2010