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Place dossier plate
SheetMS-FOREST-MS · Forest, MS 5,365 pop · income 21st pct · 8 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 Forest
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Forest on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
St. Martinvil… · lowest
33,132
St. Martinvil… · lowest
33,132 median HH income
31.8% of the leader · rank #1
Chouteau · near
51,081
Chouteau · near
51,081 median HH income
49.0% of the leader · rank #2
Forest · this city
51,082
Forest · this city
51,082 median HH income
49.0% of the leader · rank #3
Odessa · near
51,083
Odessa · near
51,083 median HH income
49.0% of the leader · rank #4
Dinosaur · near
51,086
Dinosaur · near
51,086 median HH income
49.0% of the leader · rank #5
Belmont · near
51,086
Belmont · near
51,086 median HH income
49.0% of the leader · rank #6
Balm · highest
104,347
Balm · highest
104,347 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Forest on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 5,365.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Forest - the verdict
Nationally, Forest sits in the 21st percentile for household income and the 43rd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
21st
percentile, household income
20th
percentile, home value
0th
percentile, median rent
43rd
percentile, safety
📝 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: Forest, MS
5,365 people live in Forest, Mississippi - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $51,082 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 20.6%. Forest's housing stock carries a median value of $129,100, and the median resident age is 38.2 years. 14.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 49.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 8 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 167% from five years earlier. Forest reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1586.4 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Forest's yearly average temperature at 63.3°F.
Living costs in Mississippi run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Mississippi scores 87.0 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $924 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $223 across Mississippi, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 50.9 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Forest'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 climate and hazard context to reported crime to schools and households to work and mobility to housing and income to comparison shortlist to population change to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Forest, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Forest?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 63.3°F. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Mississippi is 50.9 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Forest?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1586.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 30% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Forest?
Within Mississippi, the closest population matches are Ripley (5,415 residents, $56,641 income); Vancleave (5,196 residents, $71,000 income); Leakesville (5,564 residents, $65,745 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Oak Hill, ME (5,365 residents); Clarinda, IA (5,366 residents); St. Martinville, LA (5,367 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Forest?
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 14.7% 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.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Matched public schools
4
Bachelor's degree+
14.7%
Poverty estimate
20.6%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Forest?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
0.0%
Drive alone
74.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,976 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Forest?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 20.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Household income
$51,082
Home value
$129,100
Value / income
2.5×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +8 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 8 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+0.1%
2025 estimate
5,433
2020 estimate
5,425
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Mississippi average
F
City profile score · Forest, MS
31/100
5 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.
Household income F
$51,082
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
20.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
707 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Forest profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 87.0 index
Household income: 22/100 (F) · $51,082
Bachelor's+ share: 19/100 (F) · 14.7%
Poverty rate: 12/100 (F) · 20.6%
Violent crime: 5/100 (F) · 707 /100k
Where Forest sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Forest's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Forest highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Forest, MS (this city): home $129,100, crime 1,586/100k
Clarinda, IA : home $112,200, crime 1,305/100k
Iola, KS : home $78,100, crime 2,494/100k
Pontotoc, MS : home $144,300, crime 2,129/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Forest compare to other US cities?
Forest measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income21% higher than other cities
Home value20% pricier than other cities
Median rent0% pricier than other cities
Safety43% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Mississippi and the picture shifts: Forest ranks #27 of 56 Mississippi cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Forest 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 Forest near the bottom of Mississippi's cities
Among the 395 Mississippi cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Forest ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Forest only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#133 of 345
61st percentile in Mississippi
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Mississippi
Median Home Value
#126 of 348
64th percentile in Mississippi
Poverty Rate
#160 of 393
59th percentile in Mississippi
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#229 of 394
41st 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
21st percentile nationally for median household income · 43rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Forest's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Forest's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Forest's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$129,100Among 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
Forest's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,144 of 15,516
More affordable than 73% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,723 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.5×, Forest sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,144 of 15,516 and #3,723 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
$51,082Forest, MS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Forest, 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 Forest, MS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)20.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,365
Median Income
$51,082
Median Home Value
$129,100
Median Age
38.2
Poverty Rate
20.6%
Labor force participation
49.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1586.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
707.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
879.2
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
63.3°F
Annual Precipitation
N/A
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Forest's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,425 residents
2021
5,349 residents
2022
5,340 residents
2023
5,316 residents
2024
5,417 residents
2025
5,433 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
8
housing units authorized
Single-Family
6
detached homes
Multifamily
2
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
3
3
0
$0.7M
2020
10
6
4
$1.2M
2021
2
0
2
$0.2M
2022
3
3
0
$0.8M
2023
32
4
28
$4.0M
2024
8
6
2
$2.0M
Permit volume increased 167% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.6%
Carpool
11.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
10.4%
Work from Home
0.0%
Other
3.3%
Based on 1,976 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 Forest. 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 Forest 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 Forest sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Forest 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, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.