39426Picayune, Mississippi

Area Profile

Income, jobs, climate, physical risk and development data for ZIP code 39426.

61out of 100
Area Score
Top 46% of 5,298 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
OpportunityTop 25% of 6,210 ZIP areas measured67
SchoolsTop 46% of 4,422 ZIP areas measured54
GrowthTop 36% of 5,428 ZIP areas measured58
Housing affordabilityTop 9% of 6,685 ZIP areas measured100
ClimateTop 22% of 6,789 ZIP areas measured78
Physical resilience6132nd of 6,709 ZIP areas measured12
Access4379th of 6,791 ZIP areas measured88
Economic stability4523rd of 6,742 ZIP areas measured50
The quick read

39426 ranks in the top 25% of published ZIP profiles for employment opportunity, with unemployment at 3.8% and median household income of $73,571.

Housing is more affordable relative to local incomes than in most published city profiles: rent takes 15% of median household income and the median home is 2.8 times it.

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

At a glance

Population
18,737
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$73,571
Top 47% nationally
Density
102/sq mi
182.8 sq mi of land
Median age
41.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
City
Picayune
Mississippi
Metro area
Picayune, MS
Nearest major airport
HSA
23 mi · Stennis Intl
Median home value
$208,000
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 3.8% is lower than 74% of the 6,544 measured US ZIP areas.

Employment fell 0.3% over the past year, to 23,995 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$11,762$73,571Top 47%of 31,2952024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,578$35,303Bottom 46%of 32,8222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate11.6%Top 45%of 32,9702024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute37.7 minTop 11%of 32,8872024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher22.0%Bottom 46%of 33,1932024 ACS 5-Year
Employment23,995Bottom 24%of 6,544June 2026
Employment change (3 years)5.0%Top 5%of 6,542June 2026
Employment change (year over year)-0.3%Top 33%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force24,949Bottom 24%of 6,544June 2026
Labor force participation60.9%Top 49%of 33,2522024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)-0.5%Bottom 18%of 6,544June 2026
Unemployment rate3.8%Bottom 26%of 6,544June 2026
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202476k71k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $73,571 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 Picayune, MS, the city containing this ZIP code.

40% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 41% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 16.6 students for every full-time teacher, more than in most measured places.

Public schools
4
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
16.6
across all schools here
Math proficiency
40.0%
Top 38% in Mississippi
Reading proficiency
40.8%
Top 47% in Mississippi
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
PEARL RIVER CENTRAL ELEMENTARPearl River County School District1,41416.839%40%
PEARL RIVER CENTRAL HIGH SCHOOLPearl River County School District95216.4
PEARL RIVER CENTRAL JUNIOR HIGHPearl River County School District76216.642%42%
CENTER FOR ALTERNATIVE EDUCATIONPearl River County School District0

61.3% 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 $900 takes 15% 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
14.7%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.8×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$900
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$208,000
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.83Bottom 41%of 30,4042024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate88.4%Top 22%of 32,9102024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±5568,104Top 20%of 33,7722024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$157$900Bottom 37%of 26,6182024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$16,129$208,000Bottom 46%of 30,9412024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income14.7%Bottom 28%of 26,4702024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate9.4%Bottom 43%of 33,0282024 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
58/ 100
Top 36% 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 3.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is above the median for measured US ZIP areas.

Units permitted
40
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
3.4
Top 43% nationally
Year over year
+11%
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 Picayune, 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 91°F and January a low of 41°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 61.9 inches.

30°50°70°90°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station SLIDELL AP, 23.7 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND7.3"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation61.9"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low41°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high91°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing31°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

12 / 100
Physical resilience

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

HurricaneHigh
WildfireModerate
TornadoModerate
Inland floodingElevated
DroughtModerate
LandslideModerate

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

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
Offences reported to police are published by department rather than by town, and only where a department reported every month of the year. No municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — so there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Taxes and full cost of living
No public source publishes either with national coverage and a method open enough to check. 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. Nothing here is individualised tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house. School attendance zones, insurance pricing and the character of a neighbourhood all vary within the places measured here.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 23 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Stennis IntlHSA23 mi8,498 ft
Louis Armstrong New Orleans IntlMSY58 mi10,104 ft
Mobile RgnlMOB84 mi8,502 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
61
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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.

39426 vs Picayune

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

39426
Picayune
Median household income
$73,571
vs
$41,213
Per capita income
$35,303
vs
$25,878
Population density
102/sq mi
vs
660/sq mi
Median home value
$208,000
vs
$157,100
Median gross rent
$900
vs
$931
Homeownership rate
88.4%
vs
58.8%
Bachelor's degree or higher
22.0%
vs
16.2%
Poverty rate
11.6%
vs
20.6%
Median age
41.7
vs
41.8

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.