Petal, Mississippi

73% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 61% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 12.9 students for every full-time teacher across 6 public schools, fewer than in most measured places.

59.8% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with, not how the schools perform, so it is shown and not scored.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against Mississippi’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.

Population has grown 4% since 2020, reaching 11,538 in 2024.

Permitting has turned downward after moving the other way the year before: 37 units authorized in 2025, 55% below the prior year.

New construction is predominantly single-family: of 44 units permitted over the past twelve months, none were in buildings of five or more homes.

Federal tax returns show that people moving in from elsewhere in the US and people moving out roughly balanced across Forrest County, which contains Petal, in the most recent year. Households that moved in reported an average income of $46,292, close to the $47,933 of households that moved out.

At 3.9 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US cities.

People moving in and out

Based on the address on federal tax returns, compared with the same filers a year earlier. It counts people who file, and sees a move only when the address on a return changes. Domestic moves only: people arriving from abroad are left out. This is the figure for Forrest County, MS. IRS Statistics of Income, filing years 2022–2023.

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, hurricane and tornado, with inland flooding alone responsible for 35% of it. Inland flooding and tornado are independently rated low or minimal nationally, so this describes how the loss is composed, not how large those hazards are.

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.

Below these are deaths rather than offenses, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.

Petal's police department reported 26 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, lower than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 497.

Forrest County has a modeled homicide rate of about 6.9 per 100,000 residents a year, because the CDC suppresses counts this small, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 23.0 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, since the figure counts suicides and accidents as well as homicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 12.8 per 100,000 residents in Forrest County.

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.

Offenses are reported to the FBI by Petal’s own police department and shown only where it reported every month of the year; a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime is what police recorded, which is not the same as what happened. Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe the county around Petal (Forrest County) rather than Petal itself. Neither is part of the Area Score. How to read crime rates and death rates.

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Stennis Intl at 69 miles.

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.