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Place dossier plate
SheetMS-MADISON-MS · Madison, MS 27,775 pop · income 88th pct · 26 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 Madison
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Madison on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Greenville · lowest
36,297
Greenville · lowest
36,297 median HH income
30.0% of the leader · rank #1
Rocklin · near
120,916
Rocklin · near
120,916 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #2
Crescent Beach · near
120,917
Crescent Beach · near
120,917 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #3
Elmont · near
120,917
Elmont · near
120,917 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #4
Madison · this city
120,918
Madison · this city
120,918 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Poquoson · near
120,919
Poquoson · near
120,919 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Coyne Center · highest
120,938
Coyne Center · highest
120,938 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 Madison 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: 27,775.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Madison - the verdict
Nationally, Madison sits in the 88th percentile for household income and the 87th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
88th
percentile, household income
70th
percentile, home value
0th
percentile, median rent
87th
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: Madison, MS
27,775 people live in Madison, Mississippi - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Madison households earn a median of $120,918 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.7%. Home values in Madison run a median of $334,700, and the median resident age is 40.8 years. About 65.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 63.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 82 residential building permits were authorized in Madison (Slowing), down 18% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Madison reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 445.4 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: the state registers 87.0 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $924 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Mississippi's average monthly utility costs around $223 (state average). 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 Madison'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 population change to housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime to within-city variation to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Madison, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Population change
Is Madison growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +820 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +3.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 82 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
How far does income reach against housing in Madison?
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 2.7%, 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.
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.
PlainCities matches 26 Census tracts to this city.
Which cities make useful reference points for Madison?
Within Mississippi, the closest population matches are Pearl (27,458 residents, $54,643 income); Clinton (27,418 residents, $70,913 income); Greenville (28,833 residents, $36,297 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are McHenry, IL (27,774 residents); Garden City, KS (27,781 residents); Reisterstown, MD (27,764 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Madison?
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 81.7%. 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
11.6%
Drive alone
81.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 13,271 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Madison?
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 445.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 80% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
388.4
Violent rate
57.0
Total reported rate
445.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 65.7% 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
7
Bachelor's degree+
65.7%
Poverty estimate
2.7%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Mississippi average
A
City profile score · Madison, MS
88/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
65.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A
$120,918
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime A-
57 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate A-
2.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Madison profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 87.0 index
Bachelor's+ share: 95/100 (A+) · 65.7%
Household income: 86/100 (A) · $120,918
Violent crime: 82/100 (A-) · 57 /100k
Poverty rate: 81/100 (A-) · 2.7%
Where Madison sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Madison'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 - Madison highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Madison, MS (this city): home $334,700, crime 445/100k
McHenry, IL : home $244,900, crime 714/100k
Garden City, KS : home $186,200, crime 2,592/100k
Clinton, MS : home $220,400, crime 1,275/100k
Horn Lake, MS : home $158,900, crime 1,509/100k
Oxford, MS : home $333,400, crime 1,980/100k
Starkville, MS : home $265,900, crime 2,119/100k
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 Madison compare to other US cities?
Here's how Madison stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income88% higher than other cities
Home value70% pricier than other cities
Median rent0% pricier than other cities
Safety87% 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: Madison ranks #1 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 Madison 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 Madison near the bottom of Mississippi's cities
Among the 395 Mississippi cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Madison ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Madison only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#4 of 345
99th percentile in Mississippi
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Mississippi
Median Home Value
#2 of 348
99th percentile in Mississippi
Poverty Rate
#330 of 393
16th percentile in Mississippi
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#6 of 394
98th 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
88th percentile nationally for median household income · 87th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Madison's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Madison'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 Madison's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$334,70030th percentilemore affordable than 30% 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
Madison's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,402 of 15,516
More affordable than 65% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#618 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.8×, Madison sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,402 of 15,516 and #618 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
$120,918Madison, MS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Madison, 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 Madison, MS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)65.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
27,775
Median Income
$120,918
Median Home Value
$334,700
Median Age
40.8
Poverty Rate
2.7%
Labor force participation
63.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
65.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
445.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
57.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
388.4
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
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Madison's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
27,755 residents
2021
27,735 residents
2022
27,917 residents
2023
28,110 residents
2024
28,366 residents
2025
28,575 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
82
housing units authorized
Single-Family
82
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
100
100
0
$41.4M
2020
79
79
0
$35.2M
2021
81
81
0
$40.3M
2022
92
92
0
$47.1M
2023
73
73
0
$44.7M
2024
82
82
0
$49.7M
Permit volume decreased 18% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.7%
Carpool
6.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.1%
Work from Home
11.6%
Based on 13,271 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 Madison. 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 Madison 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 Madison sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Madison 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.