Photo: Woodlot · CC BY-SA 3.0Poplarville has more property crime per resident than 68% of U.S. towns
The overall Safety Grade is C+ (#17 of 45 graded towns in Mississippi), which means close to the middle of U.S. towns, judged on crimes its police reported from 2023 to 2025. Even so, its police logs show 1.4 violent crimes and 16.2 incidents of property crime per 1,000 residents a year, while in the rest of Mississippi the numbers are 2.7 and 21.6.
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025. “Rest of MS” is every other Mississippi city and town in the FBI’s tables; the U.S. figure is the FBI’s national estimate as published, averaged over the three years. The FBI publishes no national homicide or robbery rate in our data, so those compare with all U.S. cities and towns in its tables.
What stands out about safety in Poplarville
Among Mississippi towns, closer to the middle
Mississippi’s cities and towns report less crime than most states’, so Poplarville’s place among its own towns differs from its national one: it reports less crime than 62% of the 45 Mississippi towns we grade, against 42% nationally. Safety Grade ↓
A college town
Poplarville is home to Pearl River Community College, with 3,965 students taking classes on campus (federal college data), and 28% of residents are enrolled in college (Census). Students who live in town count as residents, so they are part of the per-resident rate. How to read it ↓
A job center
Poplarville has 1,863 jobs based in town for 2,918 residents (Census LEHD), so some reports involve people who work or shop there rather than residents. How to read it ↓
Written from the FBI data on this page. Figures are crimes reported to police, not convictions.
What’s behind Poplarville’s grade
Property crimes plus four times violent crimes reported to the FBI per resident, 2023–2025, on a national curve. Violent crime holds Poplarville’s grade up; property crime pulls it down. Its property rate (16.2) is below the FBI’s national estimate (17.6) but higher than in most individual towns: the national figure is weighted by people, and the grade counts towns.
Violent crime, by year and by type
Show as a table
| Year | Poplarville | Rest of Mississippi | U.S. (FBI national estimate) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.8 | 2.9 | 4.0 |
| 2023 | 1.1 | 2.5 | 3.9 |
| 2024 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 3.6 |
| 2025 | 0.7 | 3.1 | 3.3 |
Violent crimes per 1,000 residents
By type 2023–2025, counts
Poplarville’s police reported 12 violent crimes to the FBI over 2023–2025, about 1.4 per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.7 in the rest of Mississippi and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
Crime in Poplarville per 1,000 residents
Violent crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Property crime per 1,000 residents, 2025
Crimes reported to police in 2025 per resident; one person can be the victim of more than one, and some reports involve visitors.
And about 1 violent crime, in 2025. Below are 1,000 dots, one per resident; each colored dot is one reported crime.
Reported crime is steady
Show as a table
| Year | Poplarville property | Rest of Mississippi property | Poplarville violent | Rest of Mississippi violent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 10.0 | 25.2 | 1.8 | 2.9 |
| 2023 | 13.5 | 24.6 | 1.1 | 2.5 |
| 2024 | 12.8 | 22.1 | 2.5 | 2.5 |
| 2025 | 21.9 | 19.1 | 0.7 | 3.1 |
Crimes per 1,000 residents
Reported crime per resident was steady from 2023 to 2025: the change is within ordinary year-to-year swings. Per 1,000 residents, 2022–2025, against the rest of Mississippi.
66 crimes reported in 2025
2025 offenses reported
Offenses reported to police, not convictions. FBI Uniform Crime Reporting. The last row is counted outside the property total.
2 violent and 64 property, as reported to the FBI by Poplarville’s police.
Two people died in crashes on Poplarville’s roads in 2019–2023
Poplarville had 2 fatal crashes in five years, in which two people died; 1 was a pedestrian. Most of these deaths (1 of 2) were on an Interstate passing through, so they say more about through-traffic than about the town’s own streets.
That is about what is typical for Mississippi towns of 2,500–5,000 people: at their median rate (14.9 deaths per 100,000 residents a year), a town of Poplarville’s size would see about 2 in five years. With numbers this small, a death or two either way changes the picture, so Poplarville’s own rate (14.0) is context, not a ranking.
Deaths are counted where the crash happened, not where the people lived: a highway through town adds through-traffic deaths, and residents’ own risk on roads elsewhere isn’t here. Town rates sit below state and U.S. rates because a third of fatal crashes happen outside any town. Road safety is described here and is not part of the Safety Grade. Source: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023.
Poplarville and its neighbors
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poplarville | C+ | 1.4 | 16.2 |
Crimes reported to the FBI per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025.
Mississippi towns of a similar size
| Town | Grade | Violent | Property |
|---|---|---|---|
| Poplarville | C+ | 1.4 | 16.2 |
| Guntown | B+ | 0.4 | 9.9 |
| Union | B | 1.8 | 7.4 |
| Iuka | B− | 1.6 | 13.6 |
| Wiggins | C− | 2.6 | 27.1 |
| Water Valley | D | 4.4 | 29.2 |
The five graded Mississippi towns closest to Poplarville’s population (2,918), by grade.
How reported crime compares across the town line. Tap a town to see its safety page.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- It’s reported crime. Only incidents reported to and recorded by police appear here. Many crimes are never reported to police.
- One number for all of Poplarville. A town-wide rate doesn’t show where incidents happen, and that can differ a lot from one part of town to another.
- Visitors count too. Incidents involving people who work, shop or visit are counted against Poplarville’s residents, which raises the per-resident rate.
- Whose population. Rates use the FBI’s population for the department (2,919 in 2025); our figure for Poplarville is 2,918 (2025 Census estimate).
- Gaps are real gaps. A missing year means the department didn’t report a full year, not that nothing happened.
How the grade is calculated, for every town: How TownRatings grades safety →
Questions about safety in Poplarville
Is Poplarville, MS safe?
On crimes reported to the FBI in 2023–2025, Poplarville reports more crime per resident than 58% of U.S. towns, a C+ Safety Grade and #17 of 45 in Mississippi. Its police reported 1.4 violent crimes per 1,000 residents a year, against 2.7 in the rest of Mississippi and the FBI’s national estimate of 3.6.
What is the crime rate in Poplarville?
1.4 violent and 16.2 property crimes per 1,000 residents a year, 2023–2025, as reported to the FBI. The rest of Mississippi reports 2.7 and 21.6; the FBI’s national estimate is 3.6 and 17.6.
Who polices Poplarville?
Poplarville’s own police department, which reports to the FBI as “Poplarville”. Its figures are the ones on this page.
Heads-up board
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Please don’t name or describe individuals. In an emergency, call 911.
Neighbors looking out for each other in Poplarville.
Crime: FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program, Crime Data Explorer: offenses known to law enforcement by city, 2025, and state and national rates. Counts are crimes reported to police, not convictions. The Safety Grade is our own summary of that data, not an official rating. Road deaths: NHTSA Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), 2019–2023. This isn’t an official statement of public safety. In an emergency, call 911.