City safety & data profile
PetalMS
Petal, MS is a 11K-resident city in Forrest County with a median household income of $74,750.
Forrest County, Mississippi. Federal health, economic, and safety indicators for Petal, drawn from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, CDC PLACES, and CMS Hospital Compare. Petal has a population larger than 4% of the 4,640 U.S. cities Areazine tracks, and a median home value of $174,900.
Data updated 2026-09-04
- 11K
- Population (place)
- Bottom 5%
- By size
- $74,750
- Median income (place)
- $174,900
- Median home (place)
- 11.1%
- Poverty rate (place)
The read on Petal
Petal posts a median household income higher than 43% of U.S. cities Areazine tracks.
- Bottom 44%
- by median income, US cities
Where Petal income ranks nationally
Median household income vs. every place Areazine profiles (place-level ACS)
$74,750 Bottom 43% higher than 43% of 3,889 places Areazine profiles
Each bar is a $20K-wide band; taller bars hold more places Areazine profiles. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (place-level) · 2024 ACS 5-year
Largest cities in MS
Population among 41 MS places with 10,000+ residents and ACS income on Areazine. Tooltip shows the income rank in the same pool.
- Jackson
Jackson, MS
153,701 residents
- Gulfport
Gulfport, MS
71,856 residents
- Southaven 52,589
Southaven, MS
52,589 residents
- Hattiesburg 46,805
Hattiesburg, MS
46,805 residents
- Biloxi 45,637
Biloxi, MS
45,637 residents
- Meridian 39,661
Meridian, MS
39,661 residents
- Olive Branch 36,010
Olive Branch, MS
36,010 residents
- Tupelo 35,680
Tupelo, MS
35,680 residents
- Greenville 32,156
Greenville, MS
32,156 residents
- Horn Lake 26,915
Horn Lake, MS
26,915 residents
What this shows Jackson is the largest MS city on this list; Madison leads median income.
Highest median incomes in MS
Median household income among the same 41-city pool. Tooltip shows the population rank.
- Madison
Madison, MS
$119,338 median
- Olive Branch
Olive Branch, MS
$100,606 median
- Brandon
Brandon, MS
$92,783 median
- Ocean Springs
Ocean Springs, MS
$79,712 median
- Southaven
Southaven, MS
$78,483 median
- Hernando
Hernando, MS
$76,950 median
- Petal
Petal, MS
$74,750 median
- Clinton
Clinton, MS
$74,745 median
- Byram
Byram, MS
$70,445 median
- Long Beach
Long Beach, MS
$70,332 median
What this shows Madison posts the highest place-level median income in MS; Jackson is largest by headcount.
The quick read
Reading Petal, MS beyond the headline numbers
Petal sits inside Forrest County, Mississippi, at roughly 31.35°N, -89.26°W. Population 10,701, $74,750 median household income. Median home value $174,900, median rent $1,047. Poverty rate 11.1%, read against that income figure since two cities on the same median can differ underneath it.
Poverty in Petal, MS stands at 11.1%, above the midpoint of reporting cities. A median income can look comfortable while a share this size sits well beneath it, which is why the two figures belong together.
Housing is inexpensive against local pay -- the median home in Petal runs about 2.3 years of median household income, in the cheapest quarter of reporting cities.
Only 5% of Petal workers report working from home, the lowest quarter of reporting cities -- an economy still built around showing up somewhere.
Among the CDC measures on this page, high blood pressure departs furthest from its peer median: 39.4% in Petal, the highest-prevalence quarter of the 3,759 cities reporting that measure.
Public transit carries 0% of Petal workers, a smaller share than at least three quarters of reporting cities.
Sources: U.S. Census ACS, CDC PLACES, CMS Hospital Compare, plus live alerts for Petal from FEMA, NOAA, FDA, and CPSC. Economic comparison bars use the unweighted average across tracked Census places with a reported value, not a household-weighted national median.
10-Year Trends 2013–2024
County-level trend (Forrest County): Petal's own historical series isn't separately published by the Census Bureau, so these year-over-year figures track the surrounding county, not the city alone.
Economics
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Median Rent | |
| Poverty Rate | 11.1% -10% vs avg |
| Unemployment | 3.6% |
| Bachelor's Degree+ | 27.8% |
| Work From Home | 5% |
| Public Transit | 0% |
Population
Health Profile 15 measures
Health Indicators
Preventive Care
Other Measures
What alerts and safety updates affect Petal?
No area-tagged alerts are on record for Petal right now. New federal and counterpart-agency notices still land in the site feed as agencies publish them.
City alert dispatch desk
Sheet MS-PETAL · Petal
Petal: no area-tagged alerts on record — state hubs carry the live CAP stream.
- FEED-QUIET No tagged alerts
- LEAD-NONE Feed idle
- DESK-IDLE Awaiting feed
Counts reflect published articles tagged to Petal; untagged NOAA county warnings may still appear in the site feed. Browse Mississippi state hubs · Methodology
Read with this city profile
Frequently Asked Questions 5
What is the population of Petal, MS? ▼
What is the median household income in Petal? ▼
What is the median home value in Petal? ▼
What are the top health concerns in Petal? ▼
What is the median age in Petal? ▼
Nationwide cities with similar poverty or income 8
Two ACS-derived peer sets for Petal, both outside Mississippi so the neighborhoods are not the geographic nearby list below.
Similar poverty rate
Nearest place-level ACS poverty rates outside MS (11.1% here).
Similar median income
Nearest place-level ACS median household incomes outside MS ($74,750 here).
Compare Petal with another city
Pick a second U.S. city to open a side-by-side profile on population, income, health, and hospitals, the same federal datasets as this page.
Nearby Cities 8
Using Petal's profile
Use this as a starting research checklist, not a verdict on whether to live here.
- Check live recalls, weather and hazard alerts scoped to the Petal area before relying on national headlines. Check your area
- Read the poverty rate alongside the income figure, two places with the same median can have very different realities.
- Compare Petal against Mississippi peers on any ranking lens. Explore Mississippi
Population and economics (income, home value, poverty, education) are place-level U.S. Census ACS; health is CDC PLACES; hospital counts reflect facilities in and around the city. County-level trends are labeled when shown.
Data Sources
All data on this page comes from official U.S. government sources. Population and economic data from the Census Bureau American Community Survey (2024 5-year estimates, place geography). Health data from the CDC PLACES program (2023). Hospital ratings from CMS Hospital Compare (2024). Climate data from NOAA. Education data from NCES. Cost of living from Bureau of Economic Analysis. Crime statistics, where referenced on Areazine, originate from the FBI Crime Data Explorer. Housing market figures referenced on Areazine come from HUD Fair Market Rents. Census economics and population are at place geography; some health and hospital indicators are reported at the county level (Forrest County) where that is the smallest published unit.
Every figure on Areazine is published directly from official U.S. government sources, no number is typed in by an editor. City demographic and health figures are compiled directly from U.S. Census (place-level ACS), CDC, and CMS releases, updated quarterly within 30 days of upstream release. County-level trends are labeled when shown. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026.