Long Beach, Mississippi

Area Profile

17,009 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Long Beach, in Harrison County.

66out of 100
Area Score
Top 31% of 2,944 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 30% of 3,904 published cities66
SchoolsTop 20% of 2,668 published cities75
GrowthTop 17% of 2,973 published cities69
Housing affordabilityTop 25% of 4,223 published cities93
ClimateTop 20% of 4,223 published cities78
Physical resilience3421st of 4,182 published cities23
AccessTop 49% of 4,226 published cities92
Economic stability2982nd of 4,226 published cities49
The quick read

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 135 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 38% on the prior year.

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

A major airport is 17 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
17,009
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$70,332
Top 45% nationally
Density
1,661/sq mi
10.2 sq mi of land
Median age
39.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Harrison County
Mississippi
Metro area
Gulfport-Biloxi, MS
Nearest major airport
HSA
17 mi · Stennis Intl
Median home value
$215,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.8% is lower than 70% of the 3,904 measured US cities.

Employment fell 0.9% over the past year, to 90,391 employed residents.

36% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 77% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$7,898$70,332Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,831$35,555Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.5%Top 48%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.9 minBottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher35.6%Top 23%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment90,391Top 40%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.0%Top 14%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.9%Bottom 47%June 2026
Labor force93,931Top 40%June 2026
Labor force participation60.4%Bottom 49%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 30%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.8%Bottom 30%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202471k66k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $70,332 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 Harrison County, MS, which contains this city.

49% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 52% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
48.9%
Top 28% in Mississippi
Reading proficiency
52.1%
Top 18% in Mississippi
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Long Beach High SchoolLong Beach School District89513.6
Harper McCaughan ElementaryLong Beach School District62214.149%52%
Long Beach Middle SchoolLong Beach School District47517.657%57%
Reeves ElementaryLong Beach School District45314.237%52%
Quarles ElementaryLong Beach School District42913.052%47%

56.4% 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 $1,215 takes 21% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.1 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
20.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.1×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,215
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$215,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income3.06Top 46%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate65.7%Bottom 30%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±3617,785Top 8%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$72$1,215Top 32%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$10,751$215,200Top 43%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.7%Top 36%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate10.3%Top 49%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
69/ 100
Top 17% of 2,973 published city profiles
Permitting is increasing, measured from 2020 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 grown 2% since 2020, reaching 17,217 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 7.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

Units permitted
135
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
7.9
Top 19% nationally
Year over year
+38%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202417k17k
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
2020202220232024202516696
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2020 (−36%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 90°F and January a low of 42°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 62.8 inches.

Air quality measures a median index of 44, in the Good band, and about 5 days a year pass 100, the threshold at which the air is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station GULFPORT - BILOXI AP, 6.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.2"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
90th percentile air quality index62.02024 calendar year
Annual precipitation62.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low42°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high90°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Days above AQI 10052024 calendar year
Median air quality index44.02024 calendar year
Seasonal temperature swing31°F1991-2020 Normals
Air quality
Median air quality index
44
Good on a typical day
Worst tenth of days
62
90th percentile index
Days above 100
5
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

23 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
WildfireModerate
Coastal floodingElevated
DroughtModerate

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

Harrison County records 6.6 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 21.8 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 22.3 per 100,000 residents in Harrison County.

Homicide
6.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
21.8
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
22.3
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
23.3
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 Harrison 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 Long Beach rather than Long Beach 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 17 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Stennis IntlHSA17 mi8,498 ft
Mobile RgnlMOB59 mi8,502 ft
Louis Armstrong New Orleans IntlMSY70 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
66
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Other cities in Gulfport-Biloxi, MS

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
GulfportHarrison County73,00359vs Long Beach
BiloxiHarrison County48,86162vs Long Beach
PascagoulaJackson County21,71055vs Long Beach
GautierJackson County19,04665vs Long Beach
Ocean SpringsJackson County18,64668vs Long Beach
D'IbervilleHarrison County13,20360vs Long Beach
Moss PointJackson County11,95750vs Long Beach
Bay St. LouisHancock County10,18864vs Long Beach

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.

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 Long Beach

1 published ZIP profiles
ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeArea Score
3956018,702$69,76965