38655Oxford, Mississippi

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 38655.

77out of 100
Area Score
Top 5% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 3% of 6,210 published ZIP areas85
SchoolsTop 24% of 4,422 published ZIP areas72
GrowthTop 7% of 5,428 published ZIP areas77
Housing affordability3869th of 6,685 published ZIP areas75
ClimateTop 49% of 6,789 published ZIP areas70
Physical resilienceTop 12% of 6,709 published ZIP areas88
Access6006th of 6,791 published ZIP areas70
Economic stability6276th of 6,742 published ZIP areas28
The quick read

38655 ranks in the top 3% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.1% and median household income of $68,235.

In the public schools here, 48% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.9 students for every teacher.

Natural-hazard exposure is lower than in most comparable published ZIP profiles, placing 38655 in the top 12% for physical resilience.

At a glance

Population
46,156
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$68,235
Bottom 44% nationally
Density
127/sq mi
362.1 sq mi of land
Median age
32.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Oxford
Mississippi
Metro area
Oxford, MS
Nearest major airport
UTA
55 mi · Tunica Muni
Median home value
$340,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.1% is lower than 95% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment grew 6.2% over the past year, to 13,822 employed residents.

51% of adults hold a four-year degree, higher than 88% of measured US ZIP areas.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$5,848$68,235Bottom 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$3,219$41,492Top 35%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate19.4%Top 20%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute23.0 minBottom 24%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher51.1%Top 12%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment13,822Bottom 8%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)10.2%Top 1%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)6.2%Top 1%June 2026
Labor force14,271Bottom 7%June 2026
Labor force participation60.6%Top 50%2024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.6%Bottom 14%June 2026
Unemployment rate3.1%Bottom 5%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202468k55k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $68,235 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.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics does not publish labor-force data for ZIP areas. This is the figure for Oxford, MS, the city containing this ZIP code.

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.

Public schools
12
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.9
across all schools here
Math proficiency
47.9%
Top 30% in Mississippi
Reading proficiency
47.8%
Top 25% in Mississippi
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Oxford High SchoolOxford School District1,33515.0
Lafayette High SchoolLafayette County85512.4
Lafayette Upper Elementary SchoolLafayette County80314.148%41%
Lafayette Elementary SchoolLafayette County77615.5
Bramlett Elementary SchoolOxford School District71515.2
Central Elementary SchoolOxford School District70914.5
Della Davidson Elementary SchoolOxford School District70412.859%49%
Oxford Middle SchoolOxford School District66713.341%50%
Lafayette Middle SchoolLafayette County42010.837%47%
Oxford Intermediate SchoolOxford School District35614.252%57%
Oxford Early Childhood CenterOxford School District27714.6
OXF/LAF SCHOOL OF APPLIED TECHLafayette County0

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 $1,090 takes 19% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 5.0 times median household income here, above the historic benchmark of about three times income.

Rent as a share of income
19.2%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
5.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,090
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$340,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income4.98Top 17%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate60.4%Bottom 16%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±38725,415Top 1%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$63$1,090Top 44%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$18,468$340,000Top 27%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income19.2%Top 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate34.3%Top 11%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
77/ 100
Top 7% 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 11.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
295
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
11.2
Top 9% nationally
Year over year
+10%
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 Oxford, MS, the city containing this ZIP code.

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.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station UNIVERSITY, 3.9 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND6.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation60.5"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall1.2"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low31°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months61991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing39°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

88 / 100
Physical resilience

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

EarthquakeElevated
LandslideModerate
TornadoModerate
LightningModerate

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 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.

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 55 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Tunica MuniUTA55 mi8,500 ft
Frederick W Smith Intl/MemphisMEM57 mi11,120 ft
Millington/MemphisNQA74 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
77
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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.

38655 vs Oxford

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

38655
Oxford
Median household income
$68,235
vs
$64,451
Per capita income
$41,492
vs
$41,665
Population density
127/sq mi
vs
992/sq mi
Median home value
$340,000
vs
$385,700
Median gross rent
$1,090
vs
$1,071
Homeownership rate
60.4%
vs
43.2%
Bachelor's degree or higher
51.1%
vs
57.5%
Poverty rate
19.4%
vs
25.4%
Median age
32.7
vs
30.3

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.