Hancock County, MS
County Profile
46,167 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Hancock County, MS.
Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.
Unemployment is 3.4% and median household income $67,708, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published profiles.
Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, inland flooding and coastal flooding.
A major airport is 2 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 3.4% is lower than 83% of the 1,255 measured US locations.
Employment fell 0.9% over the past year, to 21,534 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$4,805 | $67,708 | Top 42% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$2,558 | $39,800 | Top 26% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 13.8% | Top 47% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 34.5 min | Top 8% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 26.8% | Top 32% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 21,534 | Bottom 26% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | 2.6% | Top 24% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | -0.9% | Bottom 44% | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 22,294 | Bottom 26% | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 57.5% | Bottom 44% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | -0.2% | Bottom 32% | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 3.4% | Bottom 17% | June 2026 |
| Occupation | People employed | Median annual wage |
|---|---|---|
| Retail Salespersons | 5,380 | $28,880 |
| Cashiers | 4,610 | $27,300 |
| Waiters and Waitresses | 3,910 | $22,600 |
| Registered Nurses | 3,740 | $78,960 |
| Fast Food and Counter Workers | 3,520 | $22,820 |
| Stockers and Order Fillers | 2,690 | $31,780 |
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 →46% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 47% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 16.1 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hancock High School | Hancock School District | 1,184 | — | — | — |
| Hancock Middle School | Hancock School District | 884 | — | 37% | 47% |
| East Hancock Elementary School | Hancock School District | 633 | 21.1 | 64% | 58% |
| Bay High School | Bay Waveland School District | 491 | 14.4 | — | — |
| South Hancock Elementary School | Hancock School District | 480 | — | 32% | 34% |
| Waveland Elementary School | Bay Waveland School District | 460 | 20.0 | — | — |
| Hancock North Central School | Hancock School District | 404 | 13.9 | 49% | 45% |
| Bay Waveland Middle School | Bay Waveland School District | 365 | 15.2 | 52% | 52% |
| West Hancock Elementary | Hancock School District | 349 | 13.4 | 37% | 44% |
| North Bay Elementary | Bay Waveland School District | 348 | 15.1 | 52% | 47% |
| HANCOCK COUNTY CAREER TECHNICAL CEN | Hancock School District | 0 | — | — | — |
64.8% 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 →Median rent of $977 takes 17% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 3.3 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price to income | 3.31 | Top 37% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 79.2% | Top 23% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±31 | 23,715 | Top 31% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$56 | $977 | Top 33% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$10,369 | $224,200 | Top 35% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 17.3% | Top 46% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 14.7% | Top 48% | 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 grown 1% since 2020, reaching 46,492 in 2024.
New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.
At 5.5 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.
Weather & climate
7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 91°F and January a low of 41°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 61.9 inches.
Air quality measures a median index of 43, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| 90th percentile air quality index | 60.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Annual precipitation | 61.9" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 41°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 91°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 7 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Days above AQI 100 | 0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Median air quality index | 43.0 | 2024 calendar year |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 31°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 modelled, by EPA monitors, and published by county only where a monitor sits — roughly half the counties AreaProfile publishes have one, 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 hurricane, inland flooding and coastal flooding.
Low or minimal exposure: lightning, heat wave, tornado, cold wave, hail, earthquake, ice storm, winter weather, strong wind, landslide.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
What this profile does not cover
Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.
- Reported crime
- The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
- Taxes
- No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Full cost of living
- No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.
Access
3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 2 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stennis Intl | HSA | 2 mi | 8,498 ft |
| Louis Armstrong New Orleans Intl | MSY | 54 mi | 10,104 ft |
| Mobile Rgnl | MOB | 77 mi | 8,502 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.
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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 |
| 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) |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | June 2026 | Monthly |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate | Annual (vintage released each spring) |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 | Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month |
| 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) |
| 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 |
| 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.