Lafayette County, MS
County Profile
58,327 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Lafayette 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.
Lafayette County ranks in the top 2% of published profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.2% and median household income of $67,185.
531 housing units were authorized over the past twelve months, within 5% of the prior year — steady rather than turning.
Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published profiles, placing Lafayette County in the top 9% for physical resilience.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 3.2% is lower than 90% of the 1,255 measured US locations.
Employment grew 6.2% over the past year, to 28,585 employed residents.
46% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 96% of measured US locations.
| Metric | Value | Compared with peers | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income ±$3,451 | $67,185 | Top 44% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$2,691 | $36,403 | Top 42% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate | 18.5% | Top 22% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute | 23.5 min | Bottom 34% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher | 46.5% | Top 4% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Employment | 28,585 | Bottom 38% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years) | 12.2% | Top 1% | June 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year) | 6.2% | Top 1% | June 2026 |
| Labor force | 29,539 | Bottom 37% | June 2026 |
| Labor force participation | 55.1% | Bottom 32% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year) | -0.8% | Bottom 9% | June 2026 |
| Unemployment rate | 3.2% | Bottom 10% | June 2026 |
Schools
How it’s calculated →48% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 48% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 13.9 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oxford High School | Oxford School District | 1,335 | 15.0 | — | — |
| Lafayette High School | Lafayette County | 855 | 12.4 | — | — |
| Lafayette Upper Elementary School | Lafayette County | 803 | 14.1 | 48% | 41% |
| Lafayette Elementary School | Lafayette County | 776 | 15.5 | — | — |
| Bramlett Elementary School | Oxford School District | 715 | 15.2 | — | — |
| Central Elementary School | Oxford School District | 709 | 14.5 | — | — |
| Della Davidson Elementary School | Oxford School District | 704 | 12.8 | 59% | 49% |
| Oxford Middle School | Oxford School District | 667 | 13.3 | 41% | 50% |
| Lafayette Middle School | Lafayette County | 420 | 10.8 | 37% | 47% |
| Oxford Intermediate School | Oxford School District | 356 | 14.2 | 52% | 57% |
| Oxford Early Childhood Center | Oxford School District | 277 | 14.6 | — | — |
| OXF/LAF SCHOOL OF APPLIED TECH | Lafayette County | 0 | — | — | — |
48.6% 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 $1,085 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.
A median home costs 4.7 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 | 4.69 | Top 12% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate | 63.8% | Bottom 13% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±53 | 28,714 | Top 27% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median gross rent ±$61 | $1,085 | Top 24% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$17,559 | $315,400 | Top 17% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income | 19.4% | Top 25% | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate | 33.7% | Top 6% | 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 7% since 2020, reaching 59,843 in 2024.
Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.
New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.
At 9.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US locations.
Weather & climate
6 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 31°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 60.5 inches, including 1.2 inches of snow.
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation | 60.5" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall | 1.2" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low | 31°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high | 91°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months | 6 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing | 39°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
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.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, tornado and lightning.
Low or minimal exposure: cold wave, heat wave, hurricane, strong wind, ice storm, wildfire, inland flooding, hail, drought, winter weather.
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
4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 54 miles away.
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tunica Muni | UTA | 54 mi | 8,500 ft |
| Frederick W Smith Intl/Memphis | MEM | 55 mi | 11,120 ft |
| Millington/Memphis | NQA | 73 mi | 8,001 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 |
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.