Best PlacesItawamba County, MS Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Itawamba County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Costs and crime both read low, and the nearest big city is a drive away. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Itawamba County ranks 1,338th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a stable housing market by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.

#1,338
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Itawamba County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Itawamba County area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.

Itawamba County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%A stable housing market
Top 10%Low crime
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Itawamba County with other counties.

Where Itawamba County ranks high

  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 97% of counties
  • Crime safetyBetter than 91% of counties
  • Tree shadeBetter than 86% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$529 a month, better than 86% of counties
  • Low property taxBetter than 86% of counties

Where Itawamba County ranks low

  • State infrastructureBetter than only 5% of counties
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 5% of counties
  • BikingBetter than only 7% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than only 11% of counties
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 15% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Itawamba County

A household needs to earn about $36,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Itawamba County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $67,999, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$36,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$833
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $143,338 home
Median rent
$827
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$731
Property tax$55
Homeowners insurance$48

Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Itawamba County's effective rate of 0.46%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.

Renting versus buying

At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Itawamba County

Itawamba County's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
40
about the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
18%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3424%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6418%
65 and older18%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Itawamba County.


Who works in Itawamba County, and how

Work in Itawamba County centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
7%
below the national average
Unemployment
3.3%
below the national average
Job growth
+0.2%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing22%
Health care & social15%
Retail trade13%
Transportation & warehousing10%
Construction8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 92%
  • Work from home 7%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Itawamba County

Itawamba County has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Itawamba County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
80
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 33.5 per 10,000 residents, more than 20% of counties
Coffee shops
11
about 4.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 42% of counties
Living on campus
1,125
students living in college or university housing

Is Itawamba County growing, and who is moving in?

Itawamba County has grown about 3% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Lee County, MS.

Population growth
+3%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
24,198
up from 23,397
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Lee County, MS461 / yr
Pontotoc County, MS155 / yr
Prentiss County, MS77 / yr
Monroe County, MS68 / yr
Marshall County, IN49 / yr

Where people leaving Itawamba County go

Lee County, MS502 / yr
Lafayette County, MS199 / yr
Monroe County, MS132 / yr
Hattiesburg, MS122 / yr
Oktibbeha County, MS62 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Itawamba County, month by month

Itawamba County sees roughly 72 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 56, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January56°44°33°
April77°63°50°
July94°82°73°
October81°66°53°

Flying in and out of Itawamba County

The nearest airport, Tupelo Regional, is about 21 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 103 miles away.

Nearest airport
TUP
Tupelo Regional, about 21 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
361st-busiest in the US, 3 nonstop destinations
Average drive
30 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Itawamba County

Schools across Itawamba County average a C+, better than 54% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Itawamba County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Itawamba County measure by measure

Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Itawamba County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Itawamba County suits

Families

Schools land around the 54th percentile and crime safety beats 91%.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Cost of living against local pay beats 80% of counties, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 7% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

It is quieter than 64%.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Itawamba County

Is Itawamba County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Itawamba County ranks 1,338th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on a stable housing market, low crime, and tree cover, and lowest on state infrastructure and walkability. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Itawamba County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $143,338. The overall cost of living runs about 26% below the national average. Set against a $67,999 median income, cost of living beats 80% of counties.

Is Itawamba County safe?

Yes, Itawamba County is safer than 91% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $129 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Itawamba County?

July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 56 with lows near 33. That works out to about 72 pleasant days a year, more than 23% of counties.

Is Itawamba County good for families?

Schools beat 54% of counties, crime safety beats 91%, and childcare runs $529 a month.


Compare Itawamba County with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Itawamba County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Itawamba County represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.

Itawamba County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Itawamba County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Itawamba County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Itawamba County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Itawamba County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Itawamba County detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.