As the Census Bureau releases the state-by-state 2010 data over the next few weeks, the New York Times will be relying on Social Explorer data and expertise to help tell the stories of the numbers.

Today, the New York Times covered the scope of population shifts after the devastating 2005 hurricane in “Smaller New Orleans After Katrina, Census Shows.”  The Times cited Social Explorer’s Andrew Beveridge in its findings that:

• The city has roughly 24,000 fewer white residents than it did 10 years ago, though the proportion of the white population has grown to 30 percent.
• The city has 118,000 fewer black residents. New Orleans, once more than two-thirds black, is now less than 60 percent black.
• There are 56,193 fewer children, a drop of nearly 44 percent.
• St. Tammany Parish, a suburban refuge for many New Orleanians after the storm, grew by nearly a quarter.
• St. Bernard Parish, which is downriver from the city and was almost completely overwhelmed by the floodwaters, shrank by nearly half.
• The Hispanic population of neighboring Jefferson Parish, home to many of those who came to fill the city’s ravenous appetite for construction labor, jumped by 65 percent.

Social Explorer also provided data for illustrative maps of these and other changes in New Orleans.

Also today, in the article “New Jersey’s Ethnic Makeup Shifts, and Population Drifts Southward,” the New York Times covers demographic trends around the Garden State.

In the last decade, the white population declined, while Hispanic and Asian populations grew the most.  The Black population shrank in some areas, like East Orange, in grew in others, like Union City.

Accompanying maps developed with Social Explorer data illustrate racial and ethnic population patterns, as well as the boom in vacant homes.

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Watch the New York Times and our blog for more demographic and map features as the official 2010 Census data rolls out.