38637Horn Lake, Mississippi

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 38637.

52out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 22% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity5520th of 6,210 published ZIP areas33
Schools3190th of 4,422 published ZIP areas34
Growth2819th of 5,428 published ZIP areas49
Housing affordability4678th of 6,685 published ZIP areas66
Climate3911th of 6,789 published ZIP areas68
Physical resilience3484th of 6,709 published ZIP areas57
AccessTop 21% of 6,791 published ZIP areas98
Economic stability4736th of 6,742 published ZIP areas48
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published ZIP profiles: unemployment is 4.8% and the Opportunity signal places 38637 in the bottom 11%.

In the public schools here, 25% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 15.7 students for every teacher.

A major airport is 8 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
26,647
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$53,311
Bottom 19% nationally
Density
1,680/sq mi
15.9 sq mi of land
Median age
33.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Horn Lake
Mississippi
Metro area
Memphis, TN-MS-AR
Nearest major airport
MEM
8 mi · Frederick W Smith Intl/Memphis
Median home value
$171,400
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 4.8% is lower than 35% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.5% over the past year, to 12,237 employed residents.

Median household income of $53,311 is below 81% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$4,177$53,311Bottom 19%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,650$26,749Bottom 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate19.0%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute27.9 minTop 49%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher16.5%Bottom 29%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment12,237Bottom 5%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)-0.2%Bottom 46%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.5%Bottom 34%June 2026
Labor force12,850Bottom 5%June 2026
Labor force participation65.5%Top 31%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$60,240Bottom 19%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$46,890Bottom 19%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.1%Bottom 42%June 2026
Unemployment rate4.8%Top 35%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202457k53k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $53,311 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 — Memphis, TN-MS-AR
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand37,750$39,510
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers19,460$63,070
Retail Salespersons17,050$32,580
Fast Food and Counter Workers15,320$27,490
Registered Nurses13,760$81,500
Stockers and Order Fillers12,200$37,280

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 does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Horn Lake, MS, the city containing this ZIP code.

25% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 25% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 15.7 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
6
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.7
across all schools here
Math proficiency
25.1%
Bottom 33% in Mississippi
Reading proficiency
24.8%
Bottom 27% in Mississippi
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Horn Lake High SchoolDeSoto County School District1,27114.1
Horn Lake Middle SchoolDeSoto County School District94814.838%28%
Horn Lake Intermediate SchoolDeSoto County School District91417.912%21%
Horn Lake Elementary SchoolDeSoto County School District52017.3
Shadow Oaks Elementary SchoolDeSoto County School District42317.6
DeSoto Co. Career Center WestDeSoto County School District0

72.8% 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 $1,435 takes 32% of median household income, above the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.2 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
32.3%
Above the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.2×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,435
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$171,400
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.22Top 47%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate58.1%Bottom 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±52610,987Top 14%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$35$1,435Top 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$8,259$171,400Bottom 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income32.3%Top 3%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate8.3%Bottom 39%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
49/ 100
Ranks 2819 of 5,428 published city profiles

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.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 2.6 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
68
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
2.6
Bottom 47% nationally
Year over year
+3%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

The Building Permits Survey is not published for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Horn Lake, MS, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

5 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 33°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 54.9 inches, including 2.7 inches of snow.

Air quality measures a median index of 47, in the Good band, and about 4 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station MEMPHIS INTL AP, 8.1 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.9"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index67.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation54.9"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall2.7"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low33°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months51991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10042024 calendar year
Median air quality index47.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing41°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
47
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
67
90th percentile index
Days above 100
4
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

57 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are earthquake, tornado and landslide.

TornadoModerate
EarthquakeHigh
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, cold wave, lightning, inland flooding, strong wind, ice storm, wildfire, hail, hurricane, drought, winter weather.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. ZIP values are the land-area-weighted mean of the counties the ZIP Code Tabulation Area intersects. Expected annual loss is not allocated below county level. 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.

DeSoto County records 7.8 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 14.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 14.0 per 100,000 residents in DeSoto County.

Homicide
7.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
14.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
14.0
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
11.4
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 DeSoto 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 38637 rather than 38637 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

4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 8 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Frederick W Smith Intl/MemphisMEM8 mi11,120 ft
Tunica MuniUTA25 mi8,500 ft
Millington/MemphisNQA30 mi8,001 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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Area Score
52
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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
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.

38637 vs Horn Lake

How this ZIP area compares with Horn Lake as a whole. Both figures come from the same ACS release, so the comparison is like for like.

38637
Horn Lake
Median household income
$53,311
vs
$53,311
Per capita income
$26,749
vs
$26,749
Population density
1,680/sq mi
vs
1,663/sq mi
Median home value
$171,400
vs
$171,400
Median gross rent
$1,435
vs
$1,435
Homeownership rate
58.1%
vs
58.1%
Bachelor's degree or higher
16.5%
vs
16.5%
Poverty rate
19.0%
vs
19.0%
Median age
33.5
vs
33.5

Some demographic statistics use Census ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, which approximate but do not exactly match USPS ZIP delivery geography. See the methodology for how AreaProfile maps between them.