39208Pearl, Mississippi

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 39208.

69out of 100
Area Score
Top 20% of 5,298 published profiles

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 36% of 6,210 published ZIP areas61
SchoolsTop 33% of 4,422 published ZIP areas65
GrowthTop 12% of 5,428 published ZIP areas73
Housing affordabilityTop 29% of 6,685 published ZIP areas92
ClimateTop 27% of 6,789 published ZIP areas76
Physical resilience3773rd of 6,709 published ZIP areas51
AccessTop 43% of 6,791 published ZIP areas95
Economic stability3909th of 6,742 published ZIP areas55
The quick read

Unemployment is 2.9% and median household income $65,480, putting employment conditions in the middle range of published ZIP profiles.

Development activity is both elevated and accelerating — 143 housing units permitted over the past twelve months, up 30% on the prior year.

A major airport is 4 miles away, giving the area unusually direct access to the national air network.

At a glance

Population
34,442
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$65,480
Bottom 40% nationally
Density
720/sq mi
47.8 sq mi of land
Median age
36.5
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Pearl
Mississippi
Metro area
Jackson, MS
Nearest major airport
JAN
4 mi · Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers Intl
Median home value
$185,200
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 2.9% is lower than 97% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 1.9% over the past year, to 15,172 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Median household income ±$6,295$65,480Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,111$32,929Bottom 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate12.4%Top 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.8 minBottom 34%2024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher25.2%Top 45%2024 ACS 5-Year
Employment15,172Bottom 11%June 2026
Employment change (3 years)2.4%Top 21%June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-1.9%Bottom 21%June 2026
Labor force15,631Bottom 10%June 2026
Labor force participation63.3%Top 39%2024 ACS 5-Year
Mean annual wage$53,990Bottom 4%2025 OEWS
Median annual wage$42,850Bottom 3%2025 OEWS
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.2%Bottom 36%June 2026
Unemployment rate2.9%Bottom 3%June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202465k54k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $65,480 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 — Jackson, MS
OccupationPeople employedMedian annual wage
Retail Salespersons8,770$29,070
Registered Nurses8,700$82,630
Fast Food and Counter Workers8,460$22,630
Home Health and Personal Care Aides7,800$23,130
Heavy and Tractor-Trailer Truck Drivers6,590$58,100
Laborers and Freight, Stock, and Material Movers, Hand5,890$36,910

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 Pearl, MS, the city containing this ZIP code.

45% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 42% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 14.4 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
5
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
14.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
45.3%
Top 32% in Mississippi
Reading proficiency
42.4%
Top 40% in Mississippi
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Pearl High SchoolPearl Public Schools1,27814.2
Pearl Jr High SchoolPearl Public Schools94413.151%44%
Pearl Lower ElementaryPearl Public Schools76315.3
Northside ElementaryPearl Public Schools66516.637%37%
Pearl Upper SchoolPearl Public Schools60814.146%46%

66.3% 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 $1,183 takes 22% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 2.8 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
21.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,183
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$185,200
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared with peersSource period
Home price to income2.83Bottom 41%2024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate64.7%Bottom 21%2024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±71013,692Top 10%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$60$1,183Top 37%2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$7,679$185,200Bottom 40%2024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income21.7%Top 26%2024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate6.2%Bottom 29%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
73/ 100
Top 12% 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 5.2 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
143
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
5.2
Top 29% nationally
Year over year
+30%
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 Pearl, MS, the city containing this ZIP code.

Weather & climate

7 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 37°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 57.3 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station JACKSON INTL AP, 4.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND5.8"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation57.3"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall1.0"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low37°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high92°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing35°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

51 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are tornado, hail and cold wave.

HailHigh
TornadoHigh
Strong windModerate
LightningModerate
Ice stormModerate
Cold waveModerate
HurricaneModerate
EarthquakeModerate
LandslideModerate

Low or minimal exposure: heat wave, winter weather, inland flooding, drought, wildfire.

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.

Rankin County records 8.7 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 23.1 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 8.7 per 100,000 residents in Rankin County.

Homicide
8.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
23.1
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Drug overdose
8.7
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Suicide
18.7
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 Rankin 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 39208 rather than 39208 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

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

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers IntlJAN4 mi8,500 ft
Greenville Mid-DeltaGLH99 mi8,001 ft
Golden Triangle RgnlGTR120 mi8,003 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
69
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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

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.

39208 vs Pearl

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

39208
Pearl
Median household income
$65,480
vs
$61,695
Per capita income
$32,929
vs
$35,473
Population density
720/sq mi
vs
1,088/sq mi
Median home value
$185,200
vs
$182,500
Median gross rent
$1,183
vs
$1,175
Homeownership rate
64.7%
vs
61.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher
25.2%
vs
28.1%
Poverty rate
12.4%
vs
12.2%
Median age
36.5
vs
36.4

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.