Is Wiggins a good place to live?
Wiggins earns a D, ranked 65th of 99 in Mississippi, mostly because of incomes and health. The median household income is $50K, and 25% of residents live below the poverty line. Residents are less healthy than 91% of U.S. towns on CDC estimates. One bright spot: its schools outperform 81% of the state's. 25% of residents live below the poverty line in Wiggins, above both the Mississippi town median (21%) and the median of U.S. towns (9.6%). FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk higher than 84% of U.S. communities, with hurricanes at the top. Wiggins's civic life (library use, community groups, volunteering) trails 87% of U.S. towns.
What makes Wiggins stand out
Where Wiggins beats most towns, and one thing worth knowing.
Jobs vs. working residents
| School | Grades | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Stone Elementary School | K–5 | 714 |
| Stone Middle School | 6–8 | 575 |
| Stone High School | 9–12 | 740 |
Every workday, about 2,501 people come to Wiggins for work
Where Wiggins’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Wiggins grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within Mississippi), ordered by how far Wiggins is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Moving to Wiggins: who provides what
Who provides power, water and the rest in Wiggins, and how to reach them.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Nov 18, 2024.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Wiggins.
Wiggins pairs an A− for schools with modest home prices and trades lower home prices for longer drives to work, but it is a long drive from an emergency room.
About one in four working residents works right in Wiggins
2,923 jobs are based in Wiggins, 2 for every working resident, so most of the people who work here commute in.
About one in 4 of Wiggins’s working residents works in town. The average trip to work in Wiggins is 26 minutes. The top destinations are Hattiesburg (9%), Gulfport (9%) and Biloxi (5%).
| Wiggins | Mississippi towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 28% | 19% | 8% |
| Median household income | $50,000 | $50,000 | $80,000 |
| Average trip to work | 26 minutes | 22 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
For schools, Wiggins earns an A−
Its A− for schools comes with a B+ for cost of living: the typical home is worth about $177K.
Its public schools are run by the Stone County School District. Three of its 5 schools are below, each with why it’s listed. The largest public high school is Stone High School, with 740 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stone Elementary SchoolLargest public elementary schoolGrades K–5 | Grades K–5 | 714 | A− |
| Stone High SchoolLargest public high schoolGrades 9–12 | Grades 9–12 | 740 | A− |
| Stone Middle SchoolTop results in townGrades 6–8 | Grades 6–8 | 575 | A− |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within MS on state tests and graduation
For health, Wiggins earns a D
The nearest emergency room, Pearl River County Hospital, is 23.8 miles away in a straight line. Within Mississippi it is less healthy than 61% of the 101 graded towns: much of Mississippi scores lower on these measures.
38% of adults get no exercise outside work in Wiggins. Wiggins beats the Mississippi average on 0 of 31 CDC measures and trails it on 2. 46% of adults have high blood pressure in Wiggins.
| Wiggins | Mississippi towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 38% | 36% | 25% |
| High blood pressure (CDC PLACES) | 46% | 45% | 35% |
| Obesity (CDC PLACES) | 44% | 42% | 35% |
| Smoke cigarettes (CDC PLACES) | 20% | 18% | 14% |
| What stands out | Wiggins | MS |
|---|---|---|
| More older adults who have lost all their teeth | 25.9% | 18.5% |
| Fewer adults screened for colon cancer | 55.9% | 61.8% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Wiggins has set aside 0% of its land for conservation
2.5 miles of trail in 2 parks and preserves. The biggest park or preserve is Flint Creek Water Park, at 700 acres.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Flint Creek Water Park | — | 700 |
| 2. Blaylock Park | 0.2 mi | 4 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Wiggins sees more crime per resident than 82% of U.S. towns
At 37.7 crimes per 1,000 residents a year, it reports more crime than 66% of Mississippi’s graded towns.
Wiggins’ property crime rate is 19.4 per 1,000 residents.
| Wiggins | Mississippi towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Property crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 19.4 per 1,000 residents | 16.5 | 9.9 |
| Violent crimes per 1,000 (2025) | 2.7 per 1,000 residents | 2.2 | 1.6 |
Violent crime per 1,000 residents
Property crime per 1,000 residents
FBI crime data, 2025 · crimes reported to police
Hurricanes leads a very high hazard risk in Wiggins
One flood insurance claim has been paid in Wiggins since 1983.
FEMA flood insurance claims · FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Wiggins has mild winters and hot summers
Wiggins has mild winters and warm summers, with plenty of rain. July afternoons reach 91°, January nights drop to 38° and snow is almost unheard of.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
More middle-aged adults than Mississippi overall
Adults 35 to 64 are 44% of residents (37% statewide); children under 18 are 19% of residents (23% statewide). 17% of Wiggins adults 25 and older hold a bachelor’s degree or more.
| Wiggins | Mississippi towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 18 | 19% | 24% | 22% |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 17% | 25% | 29% |
| Median age | 42.3 years | 37 years | 40.5 years |
| Aged 65 or older | 14% | 17% | 18% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
44% women, 56% men
About 127 men for every 100 women (the survey’s margin: ±5 points). Across Mississippi, 51.5% of residents are women.
| Wiggins | MS | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 6.5% | 12.1% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 12.4% | 11.2% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 12.7% | 9.8% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 10.7% | 12.6% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 12.1% | 12.6% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 19.8% | 12% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 11.9% | 12.6% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 8.1% | 10.4% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 5.8% | 6.8% | 7% |
| No diploma | 17.8% | 12.9% | 10.4% |
| High school | 33.1% | 29.9% | 26% |
| Some college | 24.1% | 21.2% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 7.9% | 10.9% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 11.7% | 15.3% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 5.5% | 9.9% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 4,300, single groups can be off by several points
A typical Wiggins home is worth about $177K
Homes are within reach (about $177K for the typical one, B+ for cost of living), but half of working residents commute more than 33 miles.
The typical Wiggins home is worth about $177,000, up 6.3% in a year, 9% below the Mississippi typical home.
| Wiggins | Mississippi towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Households that own their home | 60% | 62% | 73% |
| Median rent | $883 a month | $909 a month | $1,185 a month |
Typical home value
Zillow Home Value Index · Redfin Data Center
Everything we know about Wiggins
Colleges nearby
1 within 15 miles of the center of Wiggins
About 4 of every 100 Wiggins residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across Mississippi.
Famous people from Wiggins
4 notable people were born in Wiggins.
About Wiggins
City in Mississippi, United States
Wiggins is a city in and the county seat of Stone County, Mississippi, United States. It is part of the Gulfport-Biloxi metropolitan area. The population was 4,272 at the 2020 census.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 11 sq mi
- Elevation
- 262 ft
- ZIP code
- 39577
- Area code
- 601
Wiggins’s neighbors
One town shares a border with Wiggins.
Bond isn’t graded (fewer than 1,000 residents, or not enough data). Compare Wiggins with a neighbor →
Questions about Wiggins
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Wiggins, MS a good place to live?
Wiggins grades D overall, better than 14% of U.S. towns and #65 of 99 in Mississippi. It grades D for health, C− for safety and A− for schools. Jobs & income is its weak spot, with a D−.
Is Wiggins, MS expensive?
Not for the area. That is 2.8 years of the area's median household income ($62,418 across the Gulfport-Biloxi, MS metro area). Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades B+.
What is Wiggins, MS known for?
4 notable people were born here, including Anthony Herrera and Marcus Hinton.