Timely Population Estimates

New Orleans

Contact: Elliott W. Olson, Dakota Worldwide, (800) 475-4505


DAKOTA WORLDWIDE RELEASES FIRST STI: POPSTATS OF 2006
Report Includes First Publication of Timely Population Estimates for Hurricane Katrina and Rita Areas
Minneapolis (January 13, 2006) --- Dakota Worldwide, Inc., a provider of quarterly population estimates for United States markets, announced today the latest release of STI: PopStats, the market research industry's only quarterly population estimating product. This first 2006 release of PopStats also marks the first publication of timely population estimates for areas impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita -- giving retailers the critical demographic insight they need to make strategic business decisions.
"To make accurate decisions, companies need accurate population counts - not only in the Gulf Coast markets and in markets now inhabited by an estimated 500,000 displaced people but in all areas as we are six years past the last census," says Elliott Olson Chairman, Dakota Worldwide Corporation. "The old adage of garbage in, garbage out has not lost any of its validity."
Because there has been a scarcity of traditional data from the Gulf Coast region, estimating the populations of Hurricane-affected areas required Dakota Worldwide's sister company Synergos Technologies, Inc. to create an innovative new analytic methodology to calculate the estimates. This new method uses a mix of local, state, and federal data from organizations such as FEMA and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Since STI: PopStats is the only quarterly estimating tool that assesses populations at the neighborhood level, it was possible to verify the accuracy of the new model's population estimates with an onsite visit. "What we observed firsthand in Orleans, Jefferson, and St. Bernard Parishes during a site visit in early-December confirmed that our new model's population estimates are on target," notes Olson.
Examples of the population insights provided in PopStats' January 2006 release include the following:
Pre-Hurricane Post-Hurricane
Orleans Parish 484,674 103,326
Jefferson Parish 455,466 452,615
East Baton Rouge Parish 412,852 447,841
St. Tammany Parish 191,268 221,521
St. Bernard Parish 67,229 2,679
The next quarterly release of PopStats will be in April 2006.
Dakota Worldwide Corporation is a Minneapolis-based software and service company helping some of the nation's largest and best retailers grow with programs to maximize rates of return on both capital and operational expenditures. Large chains and small independents in all 50 states are key customers of Dakota Worldwide. Dakota Worldwide Corporation is the nation's foremost authority in market analysis and is the number one provider of market analysis software for the supermarket industry.
Further information is available by contacting Dakota Worldwide on the company's web site at http://www.dakotaww.com or by calling Elliott W. Olson, Amanda Bovi Sill, or Jon Seltzer at 1-800-475-4505, or by email at e.olson@dakotaww.com.