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Place dossier plate
SheetMS-RULEVILLE-MS · Ruleville, MS 2,859 pop · income 5th 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 Ruleville
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ruleville on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Kennedyville · lowest
35,527
Kennedyville · lowest
35,527 median HH income
22.4% of the leader · rank #1
Ruleville · this city
35,536
Ruleville · this city
35,536 median HH income
22.4% of the leader · rank #2
Alicia · near
35,536
Alicia · near
35,536 median HH income
22.4% of the leader · rank #3
Lecompte · near
35,536
Lecompte · near
35,536 median HH income
22.4% of the leader · rank #4
Amasa · near
35,536
Amasa · near
35,536 median HH income
22.4% of the leader · rank #5
Shady Shores · highest
158,333
Shady Shores · highest
158,333 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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 Ruleville 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: 2,859.
Nationally, Ruleville sits in the 5th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
5th
percentile, household income
8th
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: Ruleville, MS
Ruleville is a small town in Mississippi, home to 2,859 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Ruleville brings in $35,536 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 29.5%. Ruleville's housing stock carries a median value of $94,700, and the median resident age is 30.1 years. About 16.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 47.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 1 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 67% from five years earlier.
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $924 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Mississippi run around $223, per EIA 2023 residential energy 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 Ruleville'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 population change to comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ruleville, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Ruleville?
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 3 public schools within the city match. 16.0% 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.
Is Ruleville growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -360 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -13.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 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 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ruleville?
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.
Within Mississippi, the closest population matches are Poplarville (2,814 residents, $65,147 income); Gluckstadt (2,791 residents, $118,577 income); Verona (2,782 residents, $44,018 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Brazoria, TX (2,859 residents); Norco, LA (2,858 residents); Midway South, TX (2,858 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Ruleville?
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 29.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 Ruleville?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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
79.8%
Work from home
2.3%
Public transit
0.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,036 workers age 16+.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 29.5% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.0 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Mississippi average
F
City profile score · Ruleville, MS
29/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$35,536
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
29.5%
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).
Ruleville profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 87.0 index
Bachelor's+ share: 23/100 (F) · 16.0%
Household income: 1/100 (F) · $35,536
Poverty rate: 0/100 (F) · 29.5%
How does Ruleville compare to other US cities?
Ruleville measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income5% higher than other cities
Home value8% 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 Ruleville 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 Ruleville near the bottom of Mississippi's cities
Among the 395 Mississippi cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ruleville ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ruleville only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#260 of 345
25th percentile in Mississippi
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Mississippi
Median Home Value
#227 of 348
35th percentile in Mississippi
Poverty Rate
#78 of 393
80th percentile in Mississippi
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#208 of 394
46th 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
5th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Ruleville's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$94,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 92% 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
Ruleville's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,849 of 15,516
More affordable than 69% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,275 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, Ruleville sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,849 of 15,516 and #4,275 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
$35,536Ruleville, MS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ruleville, 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 Ruleville, MS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)29.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,859
Median Income
$35,536
Median Home Value
$94,700
Median Age
30.1
Poverty Rate
29.5%
Labor force participation
47.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.0%
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Ruleville's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,638 residents
2021
2,501 residents
2022
2,465 residents
2023
2,411 residents
2024
2,299 residents
2025
2,278 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
3
3
0
$0.5M
2020
3
3
0
$0.5M
2021
4
4
0
$0.7M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
1
1
0
$0.2M
2024
1
1
0
$0.2M
Permit volume decreased 67% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.8%
Carpool
16.9%
Public Transit
0.4%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
2.3%
Based on 1,036 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 Ruleville. 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 Ruleville 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 Ruleville sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ruleville 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, 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.