Photo: Chillin662 · CC BY-SA 4.0Yazoo City ranks among the lowest-earning U.S. towns by household income
46.7% of residents are in poverty, where Mississippi as a whole has 18.9%. Household incomes here are among the lowest in the country. The two grades for Yazoo City are D− for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Yazoo City: the gist
Fewer than half of Yazoo City workers earn over $40,000 a year
34% of Yazoo City’s working residents earn over $3,333 a month (about $40,000 a year) at their main job, wherever they work, and 20% earn $1,250 a month or less. The jobs ↓
Yazoo City’s biggest commute is a long one
The top workplace outside Yazoo City is Jackson, 39 miles away as the crow flies. 12% of working residents (366) make that trip; no town closer to home draws more of them. How far ↓
Yazoo City trades workers with the towns around it
Yazoo City has about as many jobs (3,692) as working residents (3,166), but they are mostly different people: 2,302 residents leave for work each day while 2,828 people come in. Only 23% of the jobs in Yazoo City are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
What drives the Jobs & income grade in Yazoo City
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Yazoo City is better than 2% of U.S. towns, #98 of 99 in Mississippi. Job access by car holds Yazoo City’s grade up (ahead of 28% of U.S. towns); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Yazoo City could be anywhere from D− to D.
What work there is in Yazoo City: 3,692 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Yazoo City, 2014 → 2024: 3,892 → 3,692. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Yazoo City’s own residents hold wherever they work.
Near or far: the trip to work from Yazoo City
About 18% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Who works in Yazoo City, and who works elsewhere
On a workday 2,302 residents head out to work, 864 work right here, and 2,828 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (1.17 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
12% of working residents work in Jackson
Where Yazoo City clocks in
12% of workers
4% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Each way, about 22 minutes from Yazoo City
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 7 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Yazoo City workers work from home, vs 6% across Mississippi. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 3,241 commuters (the 1% who work from home are left out). Across Mississippi: 87% drive alone, <1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Few in Yazoo City walk, bike or ride to work
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Yazoo City is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns, #13 of 101 in Mississippi. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 5.0% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 1.8% across Mississippi, on an EPA index of 7.4.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 3,262 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 27.1% of Yazoo City households have no vehicle (Mississippi 6.3%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Yazoo City’s commuters take a bus or train.
U.S. towns of 6,900 to 13,300, and where Yazoo City sits
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Des Peres MO | 9,102 | $224K | 2.0% | 0.5% | 5% | A+ |
| 2 | Beverly Hills MI | 10,449 | $177K | 1.7% | 1.6% | 3% | A+ |
| 3 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 1,339 | Diamondhead MS | 9,441 | $87K | 7.0% | 4.2% | 8% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,403 | Flowood MS | 11,003 | $84K | 13.4% | 4.1% | 16% | B |
| … | |||||||
| 1,620 | Byram MS | 12,707 | $70K | 9.1% | 5.4% | 4% | B− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,750 | Forrest City AR | 12,308 | $36K | 37.7% | 13.5% | 41% | D− |
| 2,751 | Huron CA | 7,394 | $53K | 30.4% | 12.4% | 3% | D− |
| 2,752 | Yazoo City MS | 9,867 | $28K | 46.7% | 12.7% | 27% | D− |
| 2,753 | Silver City NM | 9,284 | $39K | 23.7% | 13.1% | 50% | D− |
| 2,754 | Monticello AR | 8,269 | $27K | 30.1% | 9.6% | 45% | D− |
| … | |||||||
| 2,761 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Yazoo City, the top three, the last and three more from Mississippi.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Yazoo City: questions
What is the median household income in Yazoo City?
$28,157 (±$4,426) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $56,447 across Mississippi and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Yazoo City?
46.7%, against 18.9% across Mississippi and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Yazoo City?
22 minutes each way on average, against 26 across Mississippi and 26 nationally. 1% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Yazoo City work?
27% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Jackson (12%, 39 mi), Ridgeland (4%, 34 mi), Canton (4%, 28 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Yazoo City walkable?
Yazoo City is more walkable than 73% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 7.4 out of 20, and 5% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Yazoo City without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 27% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Yazoo City, from the people who make the trip.
More of Yazoo City
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.