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Demographics of Hattiesburg, MS
Affluence Level in Hattiesburg, MS
A below-average socioeconomic profile. Incomes, home values, and educational attainment trail the U.S., with higher poverty and unemployment.
People of Hattiesburg, MS
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is a city of roughly 48,500 residents where Black and White populations form the two largest groups, with a small but growing Hispanic community and a very limited foreign-born presence at just 2.1%. The city’s identity is shaped by its role as a regional education and healthcare hub, anchored by the University of Southern Mississippi and a dense network of medical facilities, giving it a younger, more transient feel than much of the surrounding Pine Belt. Despite its small size, Hattiesburg maintains distinct neighborhood identities that trace back to its founding industries and the migration waves that built them.
How the city was settled and grew
Hattiesburg was founded in 1882 as a railroad town, named after Hattie Hardy, the wife of a local lumber magnate. The original population was drawn by the timber boom, with the city’s location at the junction of the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad and the New Orleans and Northeastern Railroad making it a central shipping point for yellow pine. The first major wave of settlers were White lumber workers and entrepreneurs from the Deep South, who built homes in the Downtown Historic District and along the Hardy Street corridor. By the early 1900s, African American laborers arrived in large numbers to work the mills and railroads, settling in the Mobile Street area and the East Sixth Street neighborhood, which became the heart of the city’s Black commercial and social life. The lumber industry peaked around 1910, and as timber declined, the city pivoted to education (with the founding of Mississippi Normal College, now USM, in 1910) and healthcare, which stabilized the population through the mid-20th century. The Oak Grove area, originally a separate community, grew as a White middle-class suburb during this period.
Modern era (post-1965)
After the 1965 Hart-Cellar Act, Hattiesburg saw minimal international immigration due to its inland location and lack of heavy industry. The foreign-born share remains very low at 2.1%, with the largest groups being Hispanic (5.2% of the total population) and East/Southeast Asian (0.7%). The Hispanic community, primarily of Mexican and Central American origin, began growing in the 1990s and 2000s, drawn by construction and service jobs; they are concentrated in the West Hattiesburg area near the interstate and in parts of the Highway 49 corridor. The East/Southeast Asian population, mostly Vietnamese and Filipino families, is small and scattered, with no single ethnic enclave. The Indian subcontinent population is effectively zero (0.0%). Domestic migration has been more significant: White flight from the city center accelerated after school desegregation in the 1970s, pushing White families into the Oak Grove and Westover areas, which are now predominantly White and suburban. Meanwhile, the Black population, which makes up 51.1% of the city, has consolidated in the Downtown and Mobile Street historic core, as well as in the North Main Street corridor. The city’s overall racial composition has remained relatively stable since 2000, with the White share declining slightly (from about 44% to 38.8%) and the Hispanic share rising from under 2% to 5.2%.
The future
Hattiesburg’s population is likely to continue its slow growth, driven by the university and medical sectors rather than by immigration or industrial expansion. The Hispanic share is expected to rise gradually, potentially reaching 8-10% by 2040, as families settle in West Hattiesburg and the Highway 49 corridor. The Black and White populations will likely remain the two dominant groups, with the city becoming slightly more diverse but still highly segregated by neighborhood. The foreign-born share will stay low, as Hattiesburg lacks the job base or refugee resettlement programs that drive immigration in larger Southern cities. The Oak Grove and Westover areas will continue to attract White families seeking suburban schools, while the Downtown and Mobile Street neighborhoods will remain predominantly Black, with some gentrification pressure from USM-related development. The city is not homogenizing; instead, it is solidifying into distinct racial and economic enclaves, with little mixing between the historic Black core and the White suburban fringe.
For someone moving in now, Hattiesburg offers a clear trade-off: a low-cost, slow-paced Southern city with a strong university presence, but one where neighborhood choice largely determines your social and demographic experience. The city is becoming slightly more Hispanic and slightly less White, but the fundamental Black-White divide remains the defining feature of its population geography.
* Values derived from national, state, county, city and local statistics and may differ in a specific area. Last updated: 2026-04-30T03:01:58.000Z
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