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Place dossier plate
SheetMS-DECATUR-MS · Decatur, MS 2,025 pop · income 15th pct
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 Decatur
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Decatur on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Nettleton · lowest
44,178
Nettleton · lowest
44,178 median HH income
36.6% of the leader · rank #1
Beaver Dam · near
47,256
Beaver Dam · near
47,256 median HH income
39.1% of the leader · rank #2
Decatur · this city
47,258
Decatur · this city
47,258 median HH income
39.1% of the leader · rank #3
Lady Lake · near
47,260
Lady Lake · near
47,260 median HH income
39.1% of the leader · rank #4
Millville · near
47,262
Millville · near
47,262 median HH income
39.1% of the leader · rank #5
Blairs · near
47,262
Blairs · near
47,262 median HH income
39.1% of the leader · rank #6
Laurel Springs · highest
120,795
Laurel Springs · highest
120,795 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 Decatur 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: 2,025.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Decatur places in the 15th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
15th
percentile, household income
20th
percentile, home value
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: Decatur, MS
2,025 people live in Decatur, Mississippi - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $47,258 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 28.9%. Home values in Decatur run a median of $125,800, and the median resident age is 21.3 years. Educational attainment runs 20.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 37.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 0 residential units were authorized in 2024 (No Permits).
Living costs in Mississippi run below the national norm: the state registers 87.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. 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. Workers in Decatur report an average commute of 23.9 minutes, with 89.8% driving alone and 2.3% 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 Decatur'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 work and mobility to schools and households to population change to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Decatur, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Decatur?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 89.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 23.9 minutes.
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.
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 20.2% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -60 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Decatur?
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.
Within Mississippi, the closest population matches are Nettleton (2,023 residents, $44,178 income); Tylertown (2,023 residents); Bay Springs (2,021 residents, $49,183 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Laurel Springs, NJ (2,025 residents); Depoe Bay, OR (2,025 residents); Waldport, OR (2,025 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.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Decatur?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 28.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.7×
Home value
$125,800
Household income
$47,258
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Low income · poverty 28.9% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.0 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Mississippi average
F
City profile score · Decatur, 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
20.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$47,258
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
28.9%
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).
Decatur profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 87.0 index
Bachelor's+ share: 35/100 (F) · 20.2%
Household income: 17/100 (F) · $47,258
Poverty rate: 1/100 (F) · 28.9%
How does Decatur compare to other US cities?
Decatur measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income15% higher than other cities
Home value20% pricier 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 Decatur 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 Decatur near the bottom of Mississippi's cities
Among the 395 Mississippi cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Decatur ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Decatur only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#154 of 345
55th percentile in Mississippi
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Mississippi
Median Home Value
#131 of 348
62nd percentile in Mississippi
Poverty Rate
#84 of 393
79th percentile in Mississippi
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#154 of 394
60th 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
15th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Decatur's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$125,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 80% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Decatur's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,826 of 15,516
More affordable than 69% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,253 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, Decatur sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,826 of 15,516 and #4,253 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$47,258Decatur, MS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Decatur, 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 Decatur, MS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)28.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)37.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,025
Median Income
$47,258
Median Home Value
$125,800
Median Age
21.3
Poverty Rate
28.9%
Labor force participation
37.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.2%
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Decatur's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,938 residents
2021
1,900 residents
2022
1,904 residents
2023
1,905 residents
2024
1,887 residents
2025
1,878 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.9 minutes
Drive Alone
89.8%
Carpool
5.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
2.6%
Work from Home
2.3%
Based on 616 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 Decatur. 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 Decatur 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 Decatur sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Decatur 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, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, 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.