Lincoln County, MS

County Profile

34,877 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Lincoln 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.

60out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 44% of 1,225 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity972nd of 1,255 counties41
SchoolsTop 43% of 973 counties56
GrowthTop 48% of 1,226 counties52
Housing affordabilityTop 25% of 1,255 counties99
ClimateTop 12% of 1,254 counties78
Physical resilience650th of 1,255 counties60
Access1050th of 1,255 counties60
Economic stability1199th of 1,255 counties22
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 4.2% and the Opportunity signal places Lincoln County in the bottom 23%.

In the public schools here, 33% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.5 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 18% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.0 times that income.

At a glance

Population
34,877
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$51,119
Bottom 16% nationally
Density
59/sq mi
586.2 sq mi of land
Median age
41.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Lincoln County
Mississippi
Metro area
Brookhaven, MS
Nearest major airport
JAN
58 mi · Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers Intl
Median home value
$155,800
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.2% is lower than 50% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment fell 0.6% over the past year, to 13,690 employed residents.

Median household income of $51,119 is below 84% of measured US locations.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,425$51,119Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,056$28,628Bottom 18%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate21.2%Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute28.5 minTop 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher19.3%Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,690Bottom 10%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)0.0%Bottom 46%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.6%Top 47%June 2026
Labor force14,287Bottom 10%June 2026
Labor force participation52.5%Bottom 22%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 16%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.2%Top 50%June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.42.6
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 4.2% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202451k44k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $51,119 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

33% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 41% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
33.3%
Bottom 44% in Mississippi
Reading proficiency
41.0%
Top 40% in Mississippi
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Brookhaven High SchoolBrookhaven School District76112.1
Bogue Chitto SchoolLincoln County School District74715.230%37%
Loyd Star Attendance CenterLincoln County School District74114.820%41%
Enterprise Attendance CenterLincoln County School District66713.627%40%
West Lincoln SchoolLincoln County School District63614.159%60%
Mamie Martin ElementaryBrookhaven School District62214.1
Brookhaven Elementary SchoolBrookhaven School District36813.627%27%
Lipsey Middle SchoolBrookhaven School District34112.627%32%
Alexander Junior HighBrookhaven School District34012.147%42%
MS School Of The ArtsMS School Of The Arts1048.7
MULLINS SCHOOLBrookhaven School District0
BROOKHAVEN TECHNICAL CENTERBrookhaven School District0

70.6% 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 $760 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.

Rent as a share of income
17.8%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$760
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$155,800
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.05Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate74.9%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±2915,966Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$82$760Bottom 25%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,363$155,800Bottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income17.8%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate17.6%Top 35%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 →
Development Momentum
52/ 100
Top 48% of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2022 to 2025.

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 been broadly flat since 2020, at 34,956 in 2024.

Permitting has turned upward 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 0.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
32
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.9
Bottom 13% nationally
Year over year
+167%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202435k35k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
2022202320242025409.0
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+344%).

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 38°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 60.6 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MCCOMB/PIKE CO/JOHN E LEWIS AP, 24.4 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.4"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation60.6"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low38°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing32°F1991-2020 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

60 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, hurricane and strong wind.

HurricaneElevated
TornadoElevated
Strong windModerate
HailModerate
LightningModerate
LandslideModerate
Cold waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, wildfire, ice storm, earthquake, drought, inland flooding, 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.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Lincoln County records 16.5 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 31.7 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 15.8 per 100,000 residents in Lincoln County.

Homicide
16.5
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
31.7
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
15.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
16.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Lincoln County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Lincoln County rather than Lincoln County 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

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

1 major airport lies within 100 miles, the nearest 58 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers IntlJAN58 mi8,500 ft
Stennis IntlHSA100 mi8,498 ft
Louis Armstrong New Orleans IntlMSY107 mi10,104 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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Area Score
60
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory 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.

Cities in Lincoln County, MS