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Place dossier plate
SheetMS-RIPLEY-MS · Ripley, MS 5,415 pop · income 30th pct · 6 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 Ripley
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ripley on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Cocoa West · lowest
32,746
Cocoa West · lowest
32,746 median HH income
16.6% of the leader · rank #1
Overton · near
56,625
Overton · near
56,625 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #2
Rockford · near
56,625
Rockford · near
56,625 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #3
Ripley · this city
56,641
Ripley · this city
56,641 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #4
Sherwood · near
56,645
Sherwood · near
56,645 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #5
Kingman · near
56,655
Kingman · near
56,655 median HH income
28.8% of the leader · rank #6
North Hills · highest
196,938
North Hills · highest
196,938 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Ripley 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: 5,415.
Nationally, Ripley sits in the 30th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
30th
percentile, household income
21st
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: Ripley, MS
Ripley is a small town in Mississippi, home to 5,415 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $56,641 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 18.0%. Ripley's housing stock carries a median value of $132,500, and the median resident age is 40.0 years. 18.4% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 61.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 10 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 150% from five years earlier. NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 59.8°F with 57.6 inches of precipitation per year and 1.6 inches of snowfall.
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). 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). The average commute for Ripley workers runs 23.0 minutes, with 91.9% driving alone and 0.7% working from home. 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 Ripley'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 housing and income to population change to within-city variation to schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ripley, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Ripley?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 59.8°F, with 57.6 inches of precipitation and 1.6 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.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Ripley?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 18.0%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ripley?
Within Mississippi, the closest population matches are Forest (5,365 residents, $51,082 income); Leakesville (5,564 residents, $65,745 income); Vancleave (5,196 residents, $71,000 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Cocoa West, FL (5,416 residents); Algona, IA (5,414 residents); Ashton-Sandy Spring, MD (5,418 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.
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.
Population change
Is Ripley growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -66 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 10 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
-1.2%
2025 estimate
5,377
2020 estimate
5,443
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 18.4% 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+
18.4%
Poverty estimate
18.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Ripley?
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 91.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 23.0 minutes.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
0.7%
Drive alone
91.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,639 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 18.0% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.0 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Mississippi average
D
City profile score · Ripley, MS
44/100
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.
Household income F
$56,641
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
18.0%
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).
Ripley profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 87.0 index
Household income: 30/100 (F) · $56,641
Bachelor's+ share: 30/100 (F) · 18.4%
Poverty rate: 17/100 (F) · 18.0%
How does Ripley compare to other US cities?
Here's how Ripley 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 value21% 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 Ripley 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 Ripley near the bottom of Mississippi's cities
Among the 395 Mississippi cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ripley ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ripley only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#105 of 345
70th percentile in Mississippi
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Mississippi
Median Home Value
#118 of 348
66th percentile in Mississippi
Poverty Rate
#185 of 393
53rd percentile in Mississippi
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#181 of 394
54th 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. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Ripley's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$132,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 79% 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
Ripley's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#3,169 of 15,516
More affordable than 80% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,913 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.3×, Ripley sits in the affordable band:
national rank #3,169 of 15,516 and #2,913 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
$56,641Ripley, MS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ripley, 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 Ripley, MS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)18.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,415
Median Income
$56,641
Median Home Value
$132,500
Median Age
40.0
Poverty Rate
18.0%
Labor force participation
61.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.4%
Climate
Avg Temperature
59.8°F
Annual Precipitation
57.6"
Annual Snowfall
1.6"
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
Ripley's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,443 residents
2021
5,416 residents
2022
5,390 residents
2023
5,375 residents
2024
5,393 residents
2025
5,377 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
10
housing units authorized
Single-Family
10
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
4
4
0
$1.0M
2020
11
11
0
$2.3M
2021
13
13
0
$2.7M
2022
11
11
0
$2.3M
2023
11
11
0
$2.3M
2024
10
10
0
$2.1M
Permit volume increased 150% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
23.0 minutes
Drive Alone
91.9%
Carpool
7.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
0.7%
Based on 2,639 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 Ripley. 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 Ripley 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 Ripley sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ripley 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, 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.