Gautier, Mississippi

Area Profile

19,046 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Gautier, in Jackson County.

65out of 100
Area Score
Top 34% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 47% of 3,904 published cities58
SchoolsTop 33% of 2,668 published cities65
GrowthTop 5% of 2,973 published cities80
Housing affordabilityTop 20% of 4,223 published cities95
ClimateTop 21% of 4,223 published cities78
Physical resilience3210th of 4,182 published cities29
Access3121st of 4,226 published cities83
Economic stability3138th of 4,226 published cities46
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 241 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 235% on the prior year.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 20% of median household income and the median home is 2.7 times it.

Physical-risk exposure is above the national median, driven mainly by hurricane, inland flooding and coastal flooding.

At a glance

Population
19,046
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$61,926
Bottom 42% nationally
Density
629/sq mi
30.3 sq mi of land
Median age
37.9
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Jackson County
Mississippi
Metro area
Gulfport-Biloxi, MS
Nearest major airport
MOB
32 mi · Mobile Rgnl
Median home value
$166,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.9% is lower than 66% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.9% over the past year, to 64,971 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$12,157$61,926Bottom 42%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$4,648$34,049Top 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate17.5%Top 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute25.0 minBottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.0%Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment64,971Top 45%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.4%Top 18%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 47%June 2026
Labor force67,575Top 45%June 2026
Labor force participation63.7%Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$53,290Bottom 2%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$43,470Bottom 3%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.3%Bottom 28%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.9%Bottom 34%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202462k49k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $61,926 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.
Largest occupations — Gulfport-Biloxi, MS
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons5,380$28,880
Cashiers4,610$27,300
Waiters and Waitresses3,910$22,600
Registered Nurses3,740$78,960
Fast Food and Counter Workers3,520$22,820
Stockers and Order Fillers2,690$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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Jackson County, MS, which contains this city.

38% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 43% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.5 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
12.5
across all schools here
Math proficiency
37.6%
Top 46% in Mississippi
Reading proficiency
43.4%
Top 33% in Mississippi
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Gautier HighPascagoula-Gautier School District90012.7
Gautier MiddlePascagoula-Gautier School District41610.147%37%
Singing RiverPascagoula-Gautier School District41611.222%52%
Martin BluffPascagoula-Gautier School District41014.137%42%
Gautier ElementaryPascagoula-Gautier School District39714.747%49%
College Park ElementaryPascagoula-Gautier School District30313.835%35%

73.8% 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 $1,040 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.7 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
20.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.7×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,040
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$166,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.69Bottom 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate66.8%Bottom 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4198,157Top 7%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$74$1,040Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,855$166,400Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.2%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.3%Bottom 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 →
Development Momentum
80/ 100
Top 5% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing — 3 consecutive years, 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 19,055 in 2024.

Permit activity has risen for 3 consecutive years.

At 12.7 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
241
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
12.7
Top 9% nationally
Year over year
+235%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
59.8%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202419k19k
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
202220232024202522229
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was higher than 2022 (+666%).

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 61.7 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 44, in the Good band, and no day in the year passed 100.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station PASCAGOULA LOTT INTL AP, 8.6 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index61.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation61.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low41°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10002024 calendar year
Median air quality index44.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing30°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
44
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
61
90th percentile index
Days above 100
0
unhealthy for sensitive groups

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

29 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are hurricane, inland flooding and coastal flooding.

HurricaneHigh
WildfireModerate
Inland floodingModerate
Coastal floodingElevated
DroughtModerate

Low or minimal exposure: lightning, heat wave, tornado, cold wave, ice storm, winter weather, hail, earthquake, strong wind, landslide.

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.

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.

Jackson County records 8.2 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 23.9 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 28.0 per 100,000 residents in Jackson County.

Homicide
8.2
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
23.9
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
28.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
21.2
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 Jackson 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 Gautier rather than Gautier 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

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 32 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Mobile RgnlMOB32 mi8,502 ft
Stennis IntlHSA47 mi8,498 ft
Louis Armstrong New Orleans IntlMSY100 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
65
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Other cities in Gulfport-Biloxi, MS

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
GulfportHarrison County73,00359vs Gautier
BiloxiHarrison County48,86162vs Gautier
PascagoulaJackson County21,71055vs Gautier
Ocean SpringsJackson County18,64668vs Gautier
Long BeachHarrison County17,00966vs Gautier
D'IbervilleHarrison County13,20360vs Gautier
Moss PointJackson County11,95750vs Gautier
Bay St. LouisHancock County10,18864vs Gautier

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.

Compare

Put Gautier side by side with a similar place.

Gautier vs Bayou BlueGautier vs Pell CityGautier vs NeoshoGautier vs Enterprise

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
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics
2025 OEWSAnnual (spring release)
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
ClimateU.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Air Quality System
Daily Air Quality Index by county
2024 calendar yearAnnually, 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.

ZIP codes in Gautier

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3955317,225$57,46064