These Are The 10 Best Places To Retire In Mississippi

When most people think of calling it quits on a career, they immediately think of a move to Florida.

But not everyone wants to spend their golden years in Florida; some of us want to stay close to friends and family and within the great state of Mississippi.

But where exactly in Mississippi? Well, there’s only one place to go for the answer — data.

To that end, we have tried to identify the places in Mississippi that are safe, affordable, and have plenty of things to keep you busy well into retirement.

What did we find after pouring through all the data? Let’s just say we hope folks in Horn Lake don’t mind us spreading the word. Here are our top ten places in the Magnolia State to retire:

1. Horn Lake
2. Aberdeen
3. Amory
4. Laurel
5. Pascagoula
6. Holly Springs
7. Madison
8. Byram
9. West Point
10. Louisville

Why did Horn Lake take the top spot? And where are Jackson and Hattiesburg? Read on to see see all the golden parachute level details.

How We Determined The Best Places To Retire In the Magnolia State

To create our list of the best places in Mississippi to retire, we first used Census data to find all places in the Magnolia State with a population of at least 5,000 that aren’t townships.

This left us with 33 places from across the state.

For these 33, we looked at the following criteria taken from the Census, the FBI’s Crime Report, National Weather Service, and OpenFlights:

• Low cost of living
• Low crime
• Things to do (As measured by population density)
• Nice weather
• Distance to the closest international airport

We then ranked each of these places for each criteria from one to 33, with the lowest number being the best.

Finally, we took the average rank across these criteria. The place, in this case Horn Lake, with the lowest average rank was crowned the best of the best, a place for you to start your second careers.

1. Horn Lake

Population: 26,486
Cost Of Living: 80
Distance to Closest Airport: 7 miles
Crime Per 100k: 2,155
Horn Lake ranked 1 overall thanks to its 7 place rank for cost of living and 8 place safety rank.

2. Aberdeen

Population: 5,492
Cost Of Living: 79
Distance to Closest Airport: 105 miles
Crime Per 100k: 3,077
Aberdeen ranked 2 overall thanks to its 2 place rank for cost of living and 12 place safety rank.

3. Amory

Population: 7,197
Cost Of Living: 80
Distance to Closest Airport: 103 miles
Crime Per 100k: 3,959
Amory ranked 3 overall thanks to its 7 place rank for cost of living and 17 place safety rank.

4. Laurel

Population: 18,720
Cost Of Living: 80
Distance to Closest Airport: 69 miles
Crime Per 100k: 5,000
Laurel ranked 4 overall thanks to its 7 place rank for cost of living and 20 place safety rank.

5. Pascagoula

Population: 22,239
Cost Of Living: 86
Distance to Closest Airport: 104 miles
Crime Per 100k: 7,149
Pascagoula ranked 5 overall thanks to its 18 place rank for cost of living and 28 place safety rank.

6. Holly Springs

Population: 7,585
Cost Of Living: 77
Distance to Closest Airport: 35 miles
Crime Per 100k: 6,025
Holly Springs ranked 6 overall thanks to its 1 place rank for cost of living and 23 place safety rank.

7. Madison

Population: 24,871
Cost Of Living: 113
Distance to Closest Airport: 11 miles
Crime Per 100k: 1,117
Madison ranked 7 overall thanks to its 33 place rank for cost of living and 6 place safety rank.

8. Byram

Population: 11,609
Cost Of Living: 91
Distance to Closest Airport: 14 miles
Crime Per 100k: 2,058
Byram ranked 8 overall thanks to its 23 place rank for cost of living and 7 place safety rank.

9. West Point

Population: 11,200
Cost Of Living: 82
Distance to Closest Airport: 109 miles
Crime Per 100k: 3,267
West Point ranked 9 overall thanks to its 14 place rank for cost of living and 13 place safety rank.

10. Louisville

Population: 6,498
Cost Of Living: 80
Distance to Closest Airport: 80 miles
Crime Per 100k: 692
Louisville ranked 10 overall thanks to its 7 place rank for cost of living and 2 place safety rank.

Maybe You’re Not Ready To Retire Yet…

So there you have it, the best place to retire in Mississippi goes to Horn Lake.

If you’re not ready to hang up your office apparel yet, then these places might be up your alley:

• Gautier
• Batesville
• D’Iberville

For more Mississippi reading , check out:

• These Are The 10 Most Miserable Cities In Mississippi
• These Are The 10 Most Boring Places In Mississippi
• These Are The 10 Dumbest Cities In Mississippi

Detailed List Of Best Places To Retire In Mississippi

City	Rank	Population	Cost Of Living	Distane To Airport	Crimes per 100k
Horn Lake	1	26,486	80	7	2,155
Aberdeen	2	5,492	79	105	3,077
Amory	3	7,197	80	103	3,959
Laurel	4	18,720	80	69	5,000
Pascagoula	5	22,239	86	104	7,149
Holly Springs	6	7,585	77	35	6,025
Madison	7	24,871	113	11	1,117
Byram	8	11,609	91	14	2,058
West Point	9	11,200	82	109	3,267
Louisville	10	6,498	80	80	692
Starkville	11	24,457	95	107	3,585
Long Beach	12	15,224	96	70	2,193
Jackson	13	173,631	83	7	6,896
Brandon	14	22,616	95	5	977
Louisville	15	6,498	80	81	692
Louisville	16	6,498	80	81	692
Philadelphia	17	7,446	81	64	4,861
Picayune	18	10,838	85	50	5,794
Ridgeland	19	24,209	98	8	3,052
Natchez	20	15,563	82	70	7,273
Greenville	21	33,518	79	93	7,309
Meridian	22	40,809	81	80	5,493
Vicksburg	23	23,559	82	47	7,156
Petal	24	10,675	92	82	796
Indianola	25	10,426	80	85	8,248
Ocean Springs	26	17,446	96	92	3,731
Olive Branch	27	34,543	95	9	3,004
Flowood	28	8,218	101	1	4,623
Hattiesburg	29	46,629	90	82	6,187
Biloxi	30	44,527	92	83	6,515
D’Iberville	31	10,161	89	87	7,469
Batesville	32	7,436	87	49	6,549
Gautier	33	18,581	87	99	3,320