Mississippi

Evaluating Mississippi as a relocation target starts with the statewide BEA Regional Price Parity of 87.0 - where 100 is the national average, so every point above or below translates to percent-level cost of living difference. Housing costs in Mississippi index at 56.5, goods at 96.2, and services at 78.4. HUD Fair Market Rents averaged across Mississippi counties put a 2-bedroom at $924/month, the figure HUD uses to cap Section 8 voucher payments, so it reflects real submarket rents rather than listings bias.

On the income side, BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics report a statewide median salary of $57,873 with a mean of $61,945 across 1,136,310 tracked jobs. For safety context, FBI UCR data shows a violent crime rate of 143 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 953 per 100K. These state-level reads let you benchmark Mississippi against both your origin state and national medians before zooming into specific metros.

Family and education costs often decide a move. Department of Labor data for Mississippi shows center-based infant care running $6,498/year, preschool at $5,804/year, and toddler care at $5,956/year. Mississippi contains 3 metropolitan statistical areas in our dataset - Gulfport-Biloxi, Hattiesburg, Jackson - each with its own rent, wage and crime profile that can diverge sharply from the statewide average. The composite Life Score of 64.7/100 (C) folds all seven federal sources into one number for quick comparison.