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Place dossier plate
SheetMS-HORN-LAKE-MS · Horn Lake, MS 26,622 pop · income 30th 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 Horn Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Horn Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Starkville · lowest
39,751
Starkville · lowest
39,751 median HH income
23.2% of the leader · rank #1
Horn Lake · this city
56,847
Horn Lake · this city
56,847 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #2
Greers Ferry · near
56,849
Greers Ferry · near
56,849 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #3
Greenville · near
56,850
Greenville · near
56,850 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #4
Loraine · near
56,855
Loraine · near
56,855 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #5
Silver Lake · near
56,857
Silver Lake · near
56,857 median HH income
33.2% of the leader · rank #6
West Islip · highest
171,045
West Islip · highest
171,045 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 Horn Lake 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: 26,622.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Horn Lake - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Horn Lake lands in the 30th percentile for household income and the 46th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
30th
percentile, household income
30th
percentile, home value
0th
percentile, median rent
46th
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: Horn Lake, MS
26,622 people live in Horn Lake, Mississippi - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Horn Lake report a median income of $56,847 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.6%. Horn Lake's housing stock carries a median value of $158,900, and the median resident age is 34.8 years. 17.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 61.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 111 residential building permits were authorized in Horn Lake (Building Boom), up 192% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Horn Lake reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1508.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $924 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Mississippi run around $223, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 50.9 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Horn Lake'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to housing and income to population change to reported crime to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Horn Lake, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Horn Lake?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 17.3% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Horn Lake?
Within Mississippi, the closest population matches are Oxford (26,086 residents, $59,901 income); Clinton (27,418 residents, $70,913 income); Pearl (27,458 residents, $54,643 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lebanon, PA (26,600 residents); Granite City, IL (26,670 residents); Wheeling, WV (26,670 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Horn Lake?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.6%, 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.
Is Horn Lake growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 +10 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 111 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Horn Lake?
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 1508.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 34% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1398.9
Violent rate
109.9
Total reported rate
1508.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Horn Lake?
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 87.0%. 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
3.0%
Drive alone
87.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 12,529 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 13.6% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.0 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Mississippi average
D
City profile score · Horn Lake, MS
49/100
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.
Violent crime B-
110 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$56,847
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Horn Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 87.0 index
Violent crime: 68/100 (B-) · 110 /100k
Household income: 30/100 (F) · $56,847
Bachelor's+ share: 26/100 (F) · 17.3%
Poverty rate: 25/100 (F) · 13.6%
Where Horn Lake sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Horn Lake'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 - Horn Lake highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Horn Lake, MS (this city): home $158,900, crime 1,509/100k
Lebanon, PA : home $143,200, crime 1,277/100k
Granite City, IL : home $99,800, crime 3,108/100k
Wheeling, WV : home $142,500, crime 2,975/100k
Superior, WI : home $168,500, crime 2,425/100k
Edwardsville, IL : home $286,700, crime 713/100k
Oxford, MS : home $333,400, crime 1,980/100k
Clinton, MS : home $220,400, crime 1,275/100k
Starkville, MS : home $265,900, crime 2,119/100k
Madison, MS : home $334,700, crime 445/100k
Brandon, MS : home $255,900, crime 463/100k
How does Horn Lake compare to other US cities?
Here's how Horn Lake stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income30% higher than other cities
Home value30% pricier than other cities
Median rent0% pricier than other cities
Safety46% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Mississippi alone, Horn Lake ranks #24 of 56 Mississippi cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Horn Lake 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 Horn Lake near the bottom of Mississippi's cities
Among the 395 Mississippi cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Horn Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Horn Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#103 of 345
70th percentile in Mississippi
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Mississippi
Median Home Value
#89 of 348
74th percentile in Mississippi
Poverty Rate
#221 of 393
43rd percentile in Mississippi
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#192 of 394
51st 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
30th percentile nationally for median household income · 46th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Horn Lake's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Horn Lake'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 Horn Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$158,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 70% 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
Horn Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,558 of 15,516
More affordable than 64% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#648 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.8×, Horn Lake sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,558 of 15,516 and #648 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$56,847Horn Lake, MS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Horn Lake, 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 Horn Lake, MS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
26,622
Median Income
$56,847
Median Home Value
$158,900
Median Age
34.8
Poverty Rate
13.6%
Labor force participation
61.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1508.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
109.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1398.9
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.
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Horn Lake's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
26,731 residents
2021
26,755 residents
2022
26,537 residents
2023
26,606 residents
2024
26,720 residents
2025
26,741 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
111
housing units authorized
Single-Family
111
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
38
38
0
$3.4M
2020
90
90
0
$3.3M
2021
21
21
0
$1.3M
2022
54
54
0
$5.2M
2023
42
42
0
$4.0M
2024
111
111
0
$11.2M
Permit volume increased 192% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
87.0%
Carpool
8.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.2%
Work from Home
3.0%
Other
1.1%
Based on 12,529 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 Horn Lake. 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 Horn Lake 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 Horn Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Horn Lake 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, 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.