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Place dossier plate
SheetMS-SOUTHAVEN-MS · Southaven, MS 55,531 pop · income 57th pct · 41 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 Southaven
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Southaven on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Meridian · lowest
34,657
Meridian · lowest
34,657 median HH income
29.8% of the leader · rank #1
Fairfax · near
76,157
Fairfax · near
76,157 median HH income
65.6% of the leader · rank #2
Stanton · near
76,157
Stanton · near
76,157 median HH income
65.6% of the leader · rank #3
Livingston · near
76,158
Livingston · near
76,158 median HH income
65.6% of the leader · rank #4
Southaven · this city
76,159
Southaven · this city
76,159 median HH income
65.6% of the leader · rank #5
Lenox · near
76,164
Lenox · near
76,164 median HH income
65.6% of the leader · rank #6
Arcadia · highest
116,142
Arcadia · highest
116,142 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 Southaven 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: 55,531.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Southaven - the verdict
Nationally, Southaven sits in the 57th percentile for household income and the 25th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
57th
percentile, household income
47th
percentile, home value
0th
percentile, median rent
25th
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: Southaven, MS
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 55,531 residents in Southaven, a small city within Mississippi. Median household income here is $76,159 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 10.3%. Southaven's housing stock carries a median value of $214,800, and the median resident age is 35.6 years. About 27.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 64.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 252 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 37% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2328.9 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. Monthly utility costs average around $223 across Mississippi, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Southaven'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 housing and income to population change to schools and households to comparison shortlist to reported crime to work and mobility to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Southaven, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Southaven?
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 10.3%, 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 Southaven 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 +2,971 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 252 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Southaven?
Within Mississippi, the closest population matches are Biloxi (49,011 residents, $55,958 income); Hattiesburg (48,507 residents, $44,140 income); Olive Branch (46,538 residents, $98,421 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Arcadia, CA (55,550 residents); Coeur d'Alene, ID (55,558 residents); Olympia, WA (55,583 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.
What can 41 Census tracts reveal inside Southaven?
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 41 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Southaven?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 27.0% 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.
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
3
Bachelor's degree+
27.0%
Poverty estimate
10.3%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Southaven?
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 2328.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 2% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2024.8
Violent rate
304.2
Total reported rate
2328.9
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Southaven?
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 78.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.2%
Work from home
8.5%
Drive alone
78.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 27,301 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 10.3% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.0 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Mississippi average
C
City profile score · Southaven, MS
55/100
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 C
$76,159
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C-
27.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
10.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
304 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Southaven profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 87.0 index
Household income: 56/100 (C) · $76,159
Bachelor's+ share: 53/100 (C-) · 27.0%
Poverty rate: 38/100 (F) · 10.3%
Violent crime: 32/100 (F) · 304 /100k
Where Southaven sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Southaven'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 - Southaven highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Southaven, MS (this city): home $214,800, crime 2,329/100k
Arcadia, CA : home $1,336,500, crime 3,051/100k
Coeur d'Alene, ID : home $451,600, crime 1,197/100k
Olympia, WA : home $457,900, crime 4,000/100k
Mount Prospect, IL : home $377,000, crime 977/100k
Tigard, OR : home $585,700, crime 3,781/100k
Apple Valley, MN : home $354,200, crime 1,883/100k
Hattiesburg, MS : home $153,600, crime 3,687/100k
Olive Branch, MS : home $269,900, crime 1,558/100k
Tupelo, MS : home $201,300, crime 4,168/100k
How does Southaven compare to other US cities?
Where Southaven sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income57% higher than other cities
Home value47% pricier than other cities
Median rent0% pricier than other cities
Safety25% 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: Southaven ranks #36 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 Southaven 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 Southaven near the bottom of Mississippi's cities
Among the 395 Mississippi cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Southaven ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Southaven only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#41 of 345
88th percentile in Mississippi
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Mississippi
Median Home Value
#31 of 348
91st percentile in Mississippi
Poverty Rate
#258 of 393
34th percentile in Mississippi
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#76 of 394
80th 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
57th percentile nationally for median household income · 25th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Southaven's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Southaven'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 Southaven's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$214,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 53% 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
Southaven's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,695 of 15,516
More affordable than 63% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#86 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.8×, Southaven sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,695 of 15,516 and #86 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$76,159Southaven, MS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Southaven, 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 Southaven, MS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)27.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)10.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
55,531
Median Income
$76,159
Median Home Value
$214,800
Median Age
35.6
Poverty Rate
10.3%
Labor force participation
64.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
27.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2328.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
304.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2024.8
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Southaven's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
54,848 residents
2021
55,495 residents
2022
56,260 residents
2023
57,079 residents
2024
57,779 residents
2025
57,819 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
252
housing units authorized
Single-Family
252
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
400
400
0
$56.0M
2020
474
474
0
$69.1M
2021
569
569
0
$81.6M
2022
409
409
0
$63.8M
2023
314
314
0
$44.9M
2024
252
252
0
$33.2M
Permit volume decreased 37% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
78.6%
Carpool
11.7%
Public Transit
0.2%
Walk
0.4%
Work from Home
8.5%
Other
0.6%
Based on 27,301 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 Southaven. 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 Southaven 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 Southaven sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Southaven 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.