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Place dossier plate
SheetMS-CARY-MS · Cary, MS 370 pop · income 14th pct · 1 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Cary
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cary on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Artesia · lowest
19,500
Artesia · lowest
19,500 median HH income
20.3% of the leader · rank #1
Cary · this city
46,250
Cary · this city
46,250 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #2
Jackson · near
46,250
Jackson · near
46,250 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #3
Chefornak · near
46,250
Chefornak · near
46,250 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #4
Mountain Pine · near
46,250
Mountain Pine · near
46,250 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #5
Swifton · near
46,250
Swifton · near
46,250 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #6
Neola · highest
96,250
Neola · highest
96,250 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Cary on ACS population and median household income
. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 370.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Cary lands in the 14th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
14th
percentile, household income
0th
percentile, median rent
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Cary, MS
Cary is a small town in Mississippi, home to 370 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Cary brings in $46,250 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 28.8%. The median resident age is 26.3 years. About 21.2% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 51.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Living costs in Mississippi run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Mississippi at 87.0 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $924 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Mississippi run around $223, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Cary workers runs 39.2 minutes, with 100.0% driving alone and 0.0% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 50.9 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Cary's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from within-city variation to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cary, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Within-city variation
What can 1 Census tracts reveal inside Cary?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 100.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 39.2 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cary?
Within Mississippi, the closest population matches are Eagle Bend (368 residents, $45,038 income); Mount Pleasant (372 residents, $46,838 income); Osyka (368 residents). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Honomu, HI (370 residents); Powers, MI (370 residents); Maxwell, NM (370 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -20 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -8.3% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Low income · poverty 28.8% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.0 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Mississippi average
F
City profile score · Cary, MS
36/100
4 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A+
87.0 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share F
21.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$46,250
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
28.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Cary profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 87.0 index
Bachelor's+ share: 38/100 (F) · 21.2%
Household income: 15/100 (F) · $46,250
Poverty rate: 1/100 (F) · 28.8%
How does Cary compare to other US cities?
Here's how Cary stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income14% higher than other cities
Median rent0% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Cary against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Mississippi only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Mississippi-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Cary near the bottom of Mississippi's cities
Among the 395 Mississippi cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cary ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cary only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#168 of 345
51st percentile in Mississippi
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Mississippi
Poverty Rate
#85 of 393
78th percentile in Mississippi
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#137 of 394
65th percentile in Mississippi
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Mississippi only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
14th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Income distribution context
$46,250Cary, MS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cary, MS median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Cary, MS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)21.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)28.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)51.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
370
Median Income
$46,250
Median Home Value
N/A
Median Age
26.3
Poverty Rate
28.8%
Labor force participation
51.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
21.2%
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cary's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
240 residents
2021
232 residents
2022
222 residents
2023
238 residents
2024
226 residents
2025
220 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
39.2 minutes
Drive Alone
100.0%
Carpool
0.0%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
0.0%
Based on 158 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Mississippi statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $223
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Mississippi at $223 (electricity about $135 , water and sewer about $38 ).
These are Mississippi statewide averages, not a meter reading for Cary. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Mississippi's BEA cost-of-living index is 87.0 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Cary is $924/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Mississippi statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 50.9 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Mississippi statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Cary sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cary compares to similar-size Mississippi cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.