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Place dossier plate
SheetMS-OLIVE-BRANCH-MS · Olive Branch, MS 46,538 pop · income 77th 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 Olive Branch
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Olive Branch on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Meridian · lowest
34,657
Meridian · lowest
34,657 median HH income
35.2% of the leader · rank #1
Olive Branch · this city
98,421
Olive Branch · this city
98,421 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #2
Oak Hills · near
98,424
Oak Hills · near
98,424 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #3
New Prague · near
98,424
New Prague · near
98,424 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #4
Amalga · highest
98,438
Amalga · highest
98,438 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Bangor · near
98,438
Bangor · near
98,438 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Hillside Lake · near
98,438
Hillside Lake · near
98,438 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 Olive Branch 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: 46,538.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Olive Branch - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Olive Branch lands in the 77th percentile for household income and the 44th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
77th
percentile, household income
60th
percentile, home value
0th
percentile, median rent
44th
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: Olive Branch, MS
46,538 people live in Olive Branch, Mississippi - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Olive Branch households earn a median of $98,421 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.2%. Typical homes in Olive Branch are valued around $269,900, and the median resident age is 37.6 years. 31.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 67.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 172 residential building permits were authorized in Olive Branch (Construction Slowdown), down 45% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Olive Branch reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1557.9 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 61.8°F with 59.2 inches of precipitation per year and 1.5 inches of snowfall.
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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $924 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Mississippi run around $223, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 22.8 minutes, with 81.9% driving alone and 7.7% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Olive Branch'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 reported crime to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to schools and households to work and mobility to housing and income to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Olive Branch, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
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 can the FBI record say about safety in Olive Branch?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1557.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 32% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Olive Branch?
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.
Within Mississippi, the closest population matches are Hattiesburg (48,507 residents, $44,140 income); Biloxi (49,011 residents, $55,958 income); Tupelo (37,825 residents, $66,314 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Attleboro, MA (46,499 residents); Salina, KS (46,432 residents); Gallatin, TN (46,667 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.
What physical conditions frame life in Olive Branch?
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 61.8°F, with 59.2 inches of precipitation and 1.5 inches of annual snowfall. 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.
What does the education layer cover for Olive Branch?
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.
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 31.1% 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.
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 Olive Branch?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 81.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.8 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. 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.
Drive alone
81.9%
Work from home
7.7%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 24,168 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Olive Branch?
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 4.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.7×
Home value
$269,900
Household income
$98,421
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Is Olive Branch growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +994 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +2.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 172 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 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.
2020 estimate
46,569
2025 estimate
47,563
Period change
+2.1%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Mississippi average
B
City profile score · Olive Branch, MS
71/100
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 B+
$98,421
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B
4.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C+
31.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime D
199 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Olive Branch profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 87.0 index
Household income: 76/100 (B+) · $98,421
Poverty rate: 71/100 (B) · 4.2%
Bachelor's+ share: 60/100 (C+) · 31.1%
Violent crime: 48/100 (D) · 199 /100k
Where Olive Branch sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Olive Branch'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 - Olive Branch highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Olive Branch, MS (this city): home $269,900, crime 1,558/100k
Attleboro, MA : home $409,100, crime 1,347/100k
Salina, KS : home $164,500, crime 2,968/100k
Gallatin, TN : home $343,700, crime 957/100k
Farmington, NM : home $225,400, crime 3,411/100k
Prescott, AZ : home $528,500, crime 1,452/100k
Los Banos, CA : home $419,600, crime 2,047/100k
Hattiesburg, MS : home $153,600, crime 3,687/100k
Tupelo, MS : home $201,300, crime 4,168/100k
Southaven, MS : home $214,800, crime 2,329/100k
How does Olive Branch compare to other US cities?
Olive Branch measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income77% higher than other cities
Home value60% pricier than other cities
Median rent0% pricier than other cities
Safety44% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Mississippi, Olive Branch ranks #26 of 56 Mississippi cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Olive Branch 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 Olive Branch near the bottom of Mississippi's cities
Among the 395 Mississippi cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Olive Branch ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Olive Branch only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#10 of 345
97th percentile in Mississippi
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Mississippi
Median Home Value
#11 of 348
97th percentile in Mississippi
Poverty Rate
#318 of 393
19th percentile in Mississippi
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#58 of 394
85th 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
77th percentile nationally for median household income · 44th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Olive Branch's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Olive Branch'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 Olive Branch's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$269,90040th percentilemore affordable than 40% 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
Olive Branch's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,265 of 15,516
More affordable than 66% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#595 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.7×, Olive Branch sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,265 of 15,516 and #595 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
$98,421Olive Branch, MS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Olive Branch, 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 Olive Branch, MS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)31.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
46,538
Median Income
$98,421
Median Home Value
$269,900
Median Age
37.6
Poverty Rate
4.2%
Labor force participation
67.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
31.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1557.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
199.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1358.7
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
61.8°F
Annual Precipitation
59.2"
Annual Snowfall
1.5"
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
Olive Branch's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
46,569 residents
2021
46,936 residents
2022
47,043 residents
2023
47,242 residents
2024
47,593 residents
2025
47,563 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
172
housing units authorized
Single-Family
172
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
311
311
0
$40.1M
2020
284
284
0
$41.9M
2021
237
237
0
$32.1M
2022
126
126
0
$19.3M
2023
131
131
0
$19.2M
2024
172
172
0
$21.7M
Permit volume decreased 45% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
22.8 minutes
Drive Alone
81.9%
Carpool
8.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.2%
Work from Home
7.7%
Other
1.4%
Based on 24,168 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 Olive Branch. 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 Olive Branch 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 Olive Branch sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Olive Branch 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.