Best PlacesWalthall County, MS Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Walthall County, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Walthall County ranks 2,967th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. Long commutes pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on quiet.

#2,967
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 Walthall County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Walthall 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.

Walthall County's strengths and weaknesses

Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Walthall County with other counties.

Where Walthall County ranks high

  • QuietBetter than 90% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 86% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$535 a month, better than 85% of counties
  • Tree shadeBetter than 84% of counties
  • Low property taxBetter than 78% of counties

Where Walthall County ranks low

  • Short commute36.5 minutes each way, better than only 2% of counties
  • BikingBetter than only 4% of counties
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 4% of counties
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 5% of counties
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 5% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Walthall County

A household needs to earn about $33,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Walthall County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $48,564, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$33,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$762
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $129,874 home
Median rent
$840
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$662
Property tax$56
Homeowners insurance$43

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 Walthall County's effective rate of 0.52%, 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 Walthall County

Walthall County runs older than the country.

Median age
43
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
22%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1822%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6418%
65 and older22%

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


Who works in Walthall County, and how

Work in Walthall County centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
8%
below the national average
Unemployment
5.0%
about the national average
Job growth
+2.1%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social18%
Manufacturing15%
Construction12%
Retail trade9%
Transportation & warehousing8%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 90%
  • Work from home 8%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Walthall County

Walthall County has more restaurants and bars per resident than 75% of counties and more parkland per resident than 71% of counties. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Walthall County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
93
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 67.0 per 10,000 residents, more than 75% of counties
Coffee shops
16
about 11.5 per 10,000 residents, more than 82% of counties
Parkland
91 acres
about 6.6 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 71% of counties

Is Walthall County growing, and who is moving in?

Walthall County has lost about 7% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Charleston, WV.

Population growth
-7%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
13,839
down from 14,842
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Charleston, WV69 / yr
Pike County, MS58 / yr
Hattiesburg, MS41 / yr
Memphis, TN37 / yr
Pontotoc County, MS22 / yr

Where people leaving Walthall County go

Hattiesburg, MS288 / yr
New Orleans, LA87 / yr
Jackson, MS75 / yr
Pike County, MS43 / yr
Sacramento, CA35 / yr

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


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

Walthall County sees roughly 88 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs February through May, October, and November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January61°49°40°
April78°66°56°
July91°80°73°
October82°69°59°

Flying in and out of Walthall County

The nearest airport, Hattiesburg/Laurel Regional, is about 51 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 80 miles away.

Nearest airport
PIB
Hattiesburg/Laurel Regional, about 51 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
354th-busiest in the US, 1 nonstop destinations
Average drive
73 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Walthall County

Schools across Walthall County average a D, better than 8% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

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


Walthall 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 Walthall County against the other 3,143 counties.


Common questions about living in Walthall County

Is Walthall County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Walthall County ranks 2,967th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on quiet, a stable housing market, and affordable childcare, and lowest on long commutes and biking. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Walthall County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $129,874. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $48,564 median income, cost of living beats 5% of counties.

Is Walthall County safe?

Walthall County is safer than 44% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $205 per resident a year.


Compare Walthall County with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Walthall County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Walthall 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.

Walthall County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

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

Walthall 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.