Clinton, Mississippi
Area Profile
27,195 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Clinton, in Hinds County.
Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 18% of median household income and the median home is 3.0 times it.
Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by inland flooding, tornado and hail.
A major airport is 16 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.
These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 3.3% is lower than 89% of the 3,904 measured US cities.
Employment fell 1.9% over the past year, to 12,326 employed residents.
48% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 87% of measured US cities.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$4,805 | $74,745 | Top 40%of 29,463 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$3,056 | $37,526 | Top 39%of 31,420 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 9.6% | Bottom 45%of 31,900 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 25.8 min | Bottom 45%of 31,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 47.8% | Top 13%of 31,919 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 12,326 | Bottom 7%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | 0.7% | Top 38%of 3,903 | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -1.9% | Bottom 21%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 12,747 | Bottom 7%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 63.1% | Top 41%of 31,933 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Mean annual wage | $53,990 | Bottom 3%of 3,658 | 2025 OEWS |
| Median annual wage | $42,850 | Bottom 3%of 3,658 | 2025 OEWS |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | -0.5% | Bottom 17%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 3.3% | Bottom 11%of 3,904 | June 2026 |
| Occupation | People employed | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Retail Salespersons | 8,770 | $29,070 |
| Registered Nurses | 8,700 | $82,630 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 8,460 | $22,630 |
| Home Health and Personal Care Aides | 7,800 | $23,130 |
| Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers | 6,590 | $58,100 |
| Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand | 5,890 | $36,910 |
Occupational employment and wages are published for metropolitan areas rather than for individual cities or ZIP areas, so these describe the wider labor market this location sits in. 2025 OEWS, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Schools
How it’s calculated →56% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 51% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 14.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clinton High School | Clinton Public School District | 1,339 | 15.4 | — | — |
| Clinton Junior High School | Clinton Public School District | 862 | 14.9 | 65% | 55% |
| Eastside Elementary School | Clinton Public School District | 747 | 15.2 | 64% | 55% |
| Clinton Park Elementary School | Clinton Public School District | 746 | 15.9 | — | — |
| Northside Elementary School | Clinton Public School District | 683 | 15.2 | 58% | 56% |
| Sumner Hill Junior High School | Clinton Public School District | 396 | 12.8 | — | — |
| Lovett Elementary School | Clinton Public School District | 375 | 15.6 | — | — |
| Bolton-Edwards Elem Middle School | Hinds County School District | 335 | 12.9 | 14% | 26% |
| CLINTON VOC COMPLEX | Clinton Public School District | 0 | — | — | — |
| CLINTON ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL | Clinton Public School District | 0 | — | — | — |
48.5% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.
Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Mississippi’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated →Prices for everything a household buys run about 10% below the national average, on the Bureau of Economic Analysis index. Housing drives most of that difference.
A new two-bedroom lease runs about $1,389, some 24% above the $1,118 tenants already here pay — the market has moved faster than sitting tenancies have.
Median rent of $1,118 takes 18% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 3.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.
Prices here run about 10% below the national average. The spread between places is driven mostly by housing — goods vary far less — and this excludes taxes.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost of living index | 89.8 | Bottom 6%of 3,658 | 2023 |
| Home price to income | 3.02 | Top 47%of 27,972 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 68.4% | Bottom 35%of 31,717 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±493 | 10,993 | Top 5%of 32,177 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Market rent, one bedroom | $1,180 | Bottom 35%of 4,067 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, three bedroom | $1,666 | Bottom 27%of 4,067 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, two bedroom | $1,389 | Bottom 34%of 4,067 | FY2026 |
| Median gross rent ±$60 | $1,118 | Top 38%of 23,329 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$9,357 | $225,800 | Top 41%of 29,342 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 17.9% | Bottom 46%of 22,804 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 8.9% | Bottom 46%of 31,872 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated →An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.
Population has fallen 5% since 2020, reaching 26,617 in 2024.
Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before.
New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.
At 1.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities.
Weather & climate
6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 92°F and January a low of 38°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 51.3 inches.
Air quality measures a median index of 48, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| 90th percentile air quality index | 64.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Annual precipitation | 51.3" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 38°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 92°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 6 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Days above AQI 100 | 0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Median air quality index | 48.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 35°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
A comfortable median and a bad tail are different problems. Wildfire smoke and summer ozone show up in the worst tenth of days, not in the middle of the year.
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today. Air quality is measured rather than modeled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — a little over half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, and about a fifth of all US counties do, and the rest show nothing rather than an estimate. Air masses are regional, so a county reading describes the air over a place reasonably well, but it is still the county reading.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, tornado and hail.
Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, winter weather, wildfire.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
Safety
How it’s measured →Below these are deaths rather than offenses, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.
Clinton's police department reported 95 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, lower than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 928.
Hinds County records 32.1 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Firearm deaths of all intents run at 44.2 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 17.7 per 100,000 residents in Hinds County.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.
Offenses are reported to the FBI by Clinton’s own police department, for the population it serves, and are shown only where it reported every month of the year — a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime counts what was reported to and recorded by police, which is not the same as what happened, and a place that draws a large daytime workforce carries incidents its residents did not generate. Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Hinds County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city center and a quiet suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Clinton rather than Clinton itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.
What this profile does not cover
Some things people look for are not on this page, and each is absent for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.
- Taxes
- Taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Cost of living now is — the index above is the Bureau of Economic Analysis price parity for this area — but it is a price level for all consumption rather than a budget for a household, its spread is driven mostly by housing, and it excludes taxes. Housing affordability is computed separately from rent, price and income, because that answers a narrower and more actionable question. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighborhood all vary within the places measured here.
Access
2 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 16 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers Intl | JAN | 16 mi | 8,500 ft |
| Greenville Mid-Delta | GLH | 87 mi | 8,001 ft |
| Golden Triangle Rgnl | GTR | 127 mi | 8,003 ft |
Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.
Customize your score
What matters to you?
Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.
Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.
Other cities in Jackson, MS
Same metropolitan area, measured the same way| City | County | Population | Area Score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jackson | Hinds County | 146,631 | 49 | vs Clinton |
| Madison | Madison County | 27,946 | 77 | vs Clinton |
| Pearl | Rankin County | 27,737 | 69 | vs Clinton |
| Brandon | Rankin County | 25,542 | 77 | vs Clinton |
| Ridgeland | Madison County | 24,587 | 65 | vs Clinton |
| Byram | Hinds County | 12,799 | 57 | vs Clinton |
| Canton | Madison County | 10,811 | 59 | vs Clinton |
| Flowood | Rankin County | 10,587 | 71 | vs Clinton |
| Yazoo City | Yazoo County | 10,219 | 38 | vs Clinton |
Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.
Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyCompare
Put Clinton side by side with a similar place.
Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle | 28-day NASR cycle |
| Safety | Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency | 2025 calendar year | Annually, with monthly revisions |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) | Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current) |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals | Every ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period) |
| Housing | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional price parities and county personal income | 2023 | Annually, each December |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics | 2025 OEWS | Annual (spring release) |
| Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year | Annual (5-year estimates released each December) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | April 2025 to March 2026 | Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years |
| Schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school year | Directory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them |
| Housing | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research Fair Market Rents | FY2026 | Annually, each October for the coming fiscal year |
| Climate | U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System Daily Air Quality Index by county | 2024 calendar year | Annually, once a calendar year is complete |
Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.