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Demographics of Pascagoula, MS
Affluence Level in Pascagoula, MS
A below-average socioeconomic profile. Incomes, home values, and educational attainment trail the U.S., with higher poverty and unemployment.
People of Pascagoula, MS
The people of Pascagoula, Mississippi, today number roughly 21,800, forming a community that is nearly evenly split between White (44.8%) and Black (37.4%) residents, with a significant and growing Hispanic population (14.0%). The city’s character is defined by its working-class roots in shipbuilding and seafood processing, a relatively low college attainment rate (19.6%), and a small but notable foreign-born population (4.2%). This is a place where a multi-generational, blue-collar identity meets a diversifying demographic reality, creating a distinct Gulf Coast culture that is neither fully urban nor fully rural.
How the city was settled and grew
Pascagoula’s population history is tied directly to its waterfront. The area was originally inhabited by the Pascagoula Native American tribe, but the modern city’s growth began in the early 19th century with European-American settlers drawn to the deep-water port and abundant timber. The arrival of the railroad in the 1870s and the establishment of the Jackson County courthouse in the early 1900s spurred initial growth, but the defining event was the 1912 founding of the Ingalls Shipbuilding yard. This single employer transformed Pascagoula from a small fishing village into an industrial boomtown. The original shipyard workers and their families settled in the Eastside and Westside neighborhoods, which remain the historic cores of the city’s White and Black communities, respectively. The Westside, in particular, became the historic heart of Pascagoula’s African American community, home to generations of workers who built the ships and processed the seafood that defined the local economy. By the mid-20th century, the city’s population was overwhelmingly native-born, with a small but established Black population and a White majority working in the shipyard and related industries.
Modern era (post-1965)
The post-1965 period brought significant demographic change, though not primarily through new international immigration. Instead, the most dramatic shift was domestic: the expansion of Ingalls Shipbuilding during the Cold War and the 1970s oil boom drew thousands of new workers from across the South, including a substantial number of Black families from rural Mississippi and Alabama. This internal migration deepened the Black population’s presence, particularly in the Westside and the newer Lakeview subdivision, which was developed in the 1970s and 1980s as a middle-class Black neighborhood. The Hispanic population, now 14.0% of the city, began to grow noticeably in the 1990s and 2000s, driven by recruitment for shipyard labor and work in the seafood processing plants along the waterfront. These newer Hispanic residents have concentrated in the Downtown area and in the Eastside near the shipyard, forming a visible but not yet geographically segregated community. The Asian population remains negligible (0.1% East/Southeast Asian, 0.8% Indian subcontinent), reflecting the city’s lack of a high-tech or professional-service economy that typically attracts such groups. The foreign-born share of 4.2% is almost entirely accounted for by the Hispanic community, with very few immigrants from Asia or other regions.
The future
Pascagoula’s population is heading toward a tri-ethnic future of White, Black, and Hispanic residents, with the Hispanic share likely to continue growing as shipyard and industrial labor demand persists. The city is not homogenizing; rather, it is becoming more defined by distinct ethnic enclaves. The Westside remains overwhelmingly Black, the Eastside is predominantly White with a growing Hispanic presence, and the Downtown area is becoming a Hispanic hub. The White population, now 44.8%, has been slowly declining as younger families move to newer suburbs like Gautier or Ocean Springs, while the Black population has stabilized. The Hispanic community is the only group showing clear growth, and it is likely to reach 18-20% of the city’s population within a decade, driven by both continued immigration and higher birth rates. The city’s low college attainment rate (19.6%) suggests that this demographic shift will not be accompanied by a major economic transformation; Pascagoula will remain a working-class, industrial city. The key question is whether the growing Hispanic population will assimilate into the existing Black-White social structure or create a third, separate community.
For someone moving in now, Pascagoula offers a stable, affordable, and deeply rooted community where the economy still revolves around a single major employer. The demographic trends point toward a more diverse but still stratified city, where neighborhood choice will largely determine social experience. It is not a place of rapid change or gentrification, but of slow, steady demographic evolution driven by industrial labor demand.
* Values derived from national, state, county, city and local statistics and may differ in a specific area. Last updated: 2026-05-01T06:24:27.000Z
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