Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetMS-TUPELO-MS · Tupelo, MS 37,825 pop · income 45th pct · 23 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 Tupelo
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Tupelo on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Meridian · lowest
34,657
Meridian · lowest
34,657 median HH income
28.7% of the leader · rank #1
Delhi · near
66,306
Delhi · near
66,306 median HH income
54.8% of the leader · rank #2
Pierce · near
66,313
Pierce · near
66,313 median HH income
54.8% of the leader · rank #3
Cedar Glen We… · near
66,313
Cedar Glen We… · near
66,313 median HH income
54.8% of the leader · rank #4
Tupelo · this city
66,314
Tupelo · this city
66,314 median HH income
54.8% of the leader · rank #5
Clarkesville · near
66,316
Clarkesville · near
66,316 median HH income
54.8% of the leader · rank #6
Madison · highest
120,918
Madison · highest
120,918 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 Tupelo 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: 37,825.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Tupelo - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Tupelo lands in the 45th percentile for household income and the 7th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
45th
percentile, household income
43rd
percentile, home value
0th
percentile, median rent
7th
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: Tupelo, MS
Mississippi's Tupelo is a small city, with 37,825 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $66,314 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.3%. Tupelo's housing stock carries a median value of $201,300, and the median resident age is 38.4 years. About 35.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 59.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 87 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 38% from five years earlier. Tupelo's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 4168.3 in FBI UCR data, above 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 62.1°F with 57.9 inches of precipitation per year and 0.8 inches of snowfall.
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. Monthly utility costs average around $223 across Mississippi, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Tupelo'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 within-city variation to schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to reported crime to population change to climate and hazard context to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Tupelo, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Within-city variation
What can 23 Census tracts reveal inside Tupelo?
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 23 Census tracts to this city.
The NCES join finds 12 public schools within the city match. 35.1% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Tupelo?
Within Mississippi, the closest population matches are Meridian (34,466 residents, $34,657 income); Olive Branch (46,538 residents, $98,421 income); Greenville (28,833 residents, $36,297 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Longview, WA (37,836 residents); Montclair, CA (37,809 residents); Hilton Head Island, SC (37,805 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 does the journey to work look like in Tupelo?
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 86.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Tupelo?
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 4168.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 83% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
3777.3
Violent rate
391.0
Total reported rate
4168.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +169 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 87 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
+0.4%
2025 estimate
38,087
2020 estimate
37,918
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 62.1°F, with 57.9 inches of precipitation and 0.8 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.
Mean temperature
62.1°F
Annual precipitation
57.9 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
50.9
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
How far does income reach against housing in Tupelo?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.3%, 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.
Household income
$66,314
Home value
$201,300
Value / income
3.0×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 9.3% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.0 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Mississippi average
C-
City profile score · Tupelo, MS
53/100
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 B-
35.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income D
$66,314
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
9.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
391 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Tupelo profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 87.0 index
Bachelor's+ share: 67/100 (B-) · 35.1%
Household income: 44/100 (D) · $66,314
Poverty rate: 42/100 (D) · 9.3%
Violent crime: 23/100 (F) · 391 /100k
Where Tupelo sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Tupelo'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 - Tupelo highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Tupelo, MS (this city): home $201,300, crime 4,168/100k
Longview, WA : home $339,000, crime 3,392/100k
Montclair, CA : home $549,600, crime 4,290/100k
Lewiston, ME : home $214,200, crime 1,774/100k
Rome, GA : home $214,700, crime 3,976/100k
Olive Branch, MS : home $269,900, crime 1,558/100k
Madison, MS : home $334,700, crime 445/100k
Clinton, MS : home $220,400, crime 1,275/100k
How does Tupelo compare to other US cities?
Tupelo measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income45% higher than other cities
Home value43% pricier than other cities
Median rent0% pricier than other cities
Safety7% 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: Tupelo ranks #52 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 Tupelo 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 Tupelo near the bottom of Mississippi's cities
Among the 395 Mississippi cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Tupelo ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Tupelo only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#63 of 345
82nd percentile in Mississippi
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 395
0th percentile in Mississippi
Median Home Value
#47 of 348
86th percentile in Mississippi
Poverty Rate
#271 of 393
31st percentile in Mississippi
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#42 of 394
89th 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
45th percentile nationally for median household income · 7th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Tupelo's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Tupelo'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 Tupelo's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$201,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 57% 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
Tupelo's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#6,885 of 15,516
More affordable than 56% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#960 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.0×, Tupelo sits in the moderate band:
national rank #6,885 of 15,516 and #960 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$66,314Tupelo, MS median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Tupelo, 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 Tupelo, MS.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)35.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
37,825
Median Income
$66,314
Median Home Value
$201,300
Median Age
38.4
Poverty Rate
9.3%
Labor force participation
59.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
35.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4168.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
391.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3777.3
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
62.1°F
Annual Precipitation
57.9"
Annual Snowfall
0.8"
Schools
Total Schools
12
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Tupelo's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
37,918 residents
2021
37,814 residents
2022
37,750 residents
2023
37,750 residents
2024
37,934 residents
2025
38,087 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
87
housing units authorized
Single-Family
85
detached homes
Multifamily
2
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
141
141
0
$23.7M
2020
138
138
0
$25.6M
2021
101
99
2
$25.9M
2022
82
82
0
$22.1M
2023
102
86
16
$23.5M
2024
87
85
2
$20.1M
Permit volume decreased 38% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
86.7%
Carpool
6.8%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
0.4%
Work from Home
5.1%
Other
0.7%
Based on 17,708 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 Tupelo. 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 Tupelo 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 Tupelo sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Tupelo 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.