From the summer of 2022 to the summer of 2023, the U.S. population grew by 1.6 million people, with 1.4 million of them—almost 87%—in the South, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates. But Mississippi essentially missed out on that growth. It gained just over 750 residents during the same period.
This October, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, Mississippi’s civilian labor force had shrunk 1.4% from what it was a decade earlier, even as the South’s workforce overall has grown exponentially.
Only about half of the graduates from Mississippi’s public universities work in the state three years after graduation. Many leave for growing metropolitan areas in other parts of the South. The state has had one of the highest poverty rates in the nation for years. About 12.6% of the state’s population under the age of 65 have a disability, compared with 8.9% overall in the U.S.
Troubles in the capital city of Jackson, the largest city, have pushed many to leave the state. Jackson has seen its population decline from 173,500 in 2010 to 146,000 in 2022, according to Census estimates.
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